Irish, dated 1636

Formerly in the chapel at Ballynastragh House, Ireland

J. F. M. French, ‘Notices of Some County Wexford and Other Chalices’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th series, vol. 8, no. 2, 1898, pp. 126-36, p. 135;

J. J. Buckley, ‘Supplement: Some Irish Altar Plate', Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 7th series, vol. 9, no. 3, 1939, pp. 57-72, p. 68

This evocative chalice is a rare example of 17th-century Irish recusant silver. Published in 1898 and 1939, it comes from the chapel of the now lost Ballynastragh House in Ireland.

Ballynastragh was the seat of Sir Thomas Henry Gratton Esmonde (1862-1935), a pro-Treaty member of the Irish Senate, whose family were Anglo-Irish Catholic family, established at Ballynastragh since the 16th century. A repository of numerous artistic treasures, the house was burnt on 9 March 1923 by anti-Treaty IRA. Contemporary press reports note that the only objects saved from the flames were the present chalice and a set of vestments. The most recent discussion of these events can be found in Terence Dooley, Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in a Time of War and Revolution (Yale University Press, 2022).