Chalice with domed base, silver-gilt, marked Paris, 1648.

Silver-gilt chalice with a domed circular base pierced with water leaves, winged angel's masks, a cross and the Instruments of the Passion. The baluster stem and the lower part of the bowl are similarly chased but the upper section is plain.

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Provenance: Christie's Geneva, 13 November 1995, lot 144; S. J. Phillips, London, 1995; on loan to Portland Art Museum 1996-1997.

It was a tradition for Flemish silversmiths to spend part of their working life, quite often during or shortly after the apprenticeship, in Paris. Therefore the same motifs and stylistic elements can be found on both, Parisian and Antwerp silver objects, throughout most of the seventeenth century.

The maker’s mark on this object is illegible: it was stamped on the sheet of silver before the piece was completed, which was the custom in Paris at the time, and was deformed through the repeated hammer strokes used in the chasing process. A very similar chalice with a legible mark of Paris goldsmith César Aubry is now in a private collection (Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle. 2002. vol. II. Cat. no. 125, p. 341).

For Paris assay office mark with crowned 'D’ see bibliographic reference, ‘Alphabet en usage de 1644 a 1669’, no.143 [Dec. 1648] in M. Bimbenet-Privat, G. de Fontaines, La datation de l'orfèvrerie parisienne sous l'Ancien Régime: poinçons de jurande et poinçoins de la Marque, 1507-1792.

During the Catholic Mass, the wine is held in a chalice and the bread is contained in a ciborium. This chalice was made for this purpose. The belief that bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ when consecrated during Mass was reaffirmed in the 16th century. It was a central decree issued by the Council of Trent which set out to confirm and strengthen the doctrines of the Catholic Church. This led to the increased production of exquisite vessels for Catholic worship.

This chalice is decorated with the ‘Instruments of the Passion’, symbolic objects associated with the Passion of Christ. They often appear on 17th-century chalices, and include the cross and the Crown of Thorns. The chalice has Parisian marks although the decoration is based on popular engravings by the Wierix family of printmakers from Antwerp.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.

LOAN:GILBERT.99-2008