Silver-gilt dish, London hallmarks for 1573-74, mark of Roger Flint, engraved with scrolling ornament, sea monsters and a central scene of two figures praying.

Spice dish, (one of a set of six, engraved with scenes from the stories of Abraham and Issac), silver-gilt, engraved with with the scene of Abraham and Sarah praying for a child, surrounded by fanatstic marine monsters. The rim engraved with panels filled with birds and beasts amdist foliage and roundels engraved with birds and a coat of arms.

Purchased with funds from the Murray Bequest and The Art Fund

Three identical coats of arms were originally engraved on the rim of this bowl. Two have been mostly erased and hidden by scrolling foliage ornament, the third is covered by a later coat of arms. Close examination of these traces reveals the original arms to be those of William Cecil, first Lord Burghley (1520-98), Lord Treasurer to Elizabeth I (Schroder: 2004, pp. 3-4). The later arms are those of the Montagu family, and may refer to William Montagu of Oakley, Bedfordshire, fifth son of Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Montagu (d. 1556). This is one of six similar engraved plates, all with Montagu arms, which appear to have remained in the possession of the family from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, when they were sent to auction at Christie's, London, by Captain Frederick Montagu who had inherited the plates from his uncle, Andrew Montagu of Ingmanthorpe Hall, Yorkshire, and Papplewick Hall, Nottinghamshire. The Museum purchased all six plates at the sale on July 3rd, 1946.

The identification of the central scene on this plate has been problematic. It shows a beardless (young) man and a woman kneeling in the centre of a room, their arms raised in prayer. Before them is a four-poster double bed. Oman and Mayne (1947) suggested it represented Abraham and Sarai praying for a child, their suggestion presumably based on the fact that the scenes of the other five plates all illustrate Old Testament stories of Abraham and Isaac. Their identification was followed by Glanville (1990), but challenged recently by Schroder (2004), who observed that the scene has no basis in the biblical text. Instead he proposes the youthful couple are Tobias and Sarah on their wedding night, two figures from the apocryphal biblical Book of Tobit, and argues their story would have had particular significance for a man of Burghley's religous convictions and social status. The apparent incongruity of including a single dish with a central scene inspired by a different biblical source from the other five is resolved if the original set included twelve, not six, pieces.

Roger Flint / Flynt

This is one of six related silver-gilt dishes in the V&A collections which may originally have been part of a larger group of twelve. They are rare examples of silver intended for dessert, or 'banqueting', a costly course of fruits and sweetmeats which came after the main meal and was often enjoyed in a separate location. At the royal palaces of Hampton Court and Nonesuch, a select few (perhaps six to eight people) would have had their senses pleased in an intimate banqueting house where all accoutrements were as luxurious as the food served. Dessert was an opportunity for hosts to flatter guests with very expensive rareities such as refined sugar from Cyprus or Madeira. A silver dish for meat would have been plain, but dessert dishes, like this one, were elaborately decorated with fine engraving or chasing (designs hammered into relief) and were often gilded. Sometimes they were made from another precious material such as mother of pearl, painted glass or tortoiseshell.

The mid 17th century coat of arms engraved on the V&A dishes hides an earlier erased coat of arms. Faint traces of the earlier one can be seen, enough to identify the original owner as William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, who was Lord Treasurer and chief advisor to Elizabeth I and one of the richest and most accomplished patrons of the arts of the 16th century. The lack of wear on the dishes raises the possibility that while they followed the pattern of dessert dishes, they may have been used primarily for display on a sideboard or 'buffet' rather than for use. The exquisite and complex scheme of engraving on each dish would certainly be seen to better advantage. The engraver combines a border of fashionable arabesque ornament (scrolls of pointed leaves) encompassing birds, animals and monsters with fantastical marine scenes in the well of each dish surrounding a biblical scene in the centre.

M.55-1946