A silver-gilt and enamelled chalice, unmarked, probably German, late 15th/early 16th century

hexafoil foot engraved with The Virgin Mary, St. Peter, the Virgin and Child with St. Anne, St. Paul and St. John the Babtist, rising to black enamel bosses with letters spelling the name IHESUS, flanked by twelve cast demi-figures of saints in Gothic tracery niches and six further figures forming the calyx including St. Barbara, St Sebastian, St Bartholomew and St James the Greater, underside later inscribed ORA PRO A.R.H.

With Daniel Katz

Warsaw, The Royal Castle, Opus Sacrum, 10 April – 31 July, 1990

Jozef Grabski, ed., Opus Sacrum, exhibition catalogue, Vienna, 1990, pp. 292-294, cat. no. 52

It has not been possible to check the chalice through thouroughly as dissasembling the item has not been possible. The section above the stem's knop doesnt fit perfectly and leaves a small section of the shaft visible The wires at the calyx appear out of character and may possibly come from a different period, although it can equally be argued that they are original. Some wear to engraving on the foot and gilding has been represhed. Condition of enamel pretty good. Overall a very interesting and early piece. For further queries regarding this lot please contact the Silver department on +44(0)207.293.5100.
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The clothes and hair of the expressively modelled figures are indicatative of the late 15^th century. The stylilishly unfinished half and quarter circles of gothic tracery which are engraved on the foot can be  found in cast as well as engraved ornament of the period. See for example goldsmith's models for similar unfinished tracery elements from the late 15^th Century in the Basel Historisches Museum, and on a monstrance circa 1500 from Augsburg in the Pfarrkirche of Tiefenbronn bei Pforzheim illustrated in Johann Micheal Fritz, Goldschmiedekunst de Gotik in Mitteleuropa, Munich 1982, nos. 703 and 726.