An early pewter coffin-chalice and paten found in Westminster Abbey

Extract

In a paper read before the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society as far back as 12th November 1885, the late Sir William Hope laid down the main principles to be adopted in determining the dates of early chalices and patens of English manufacture. So far as I am aware nothing that has been written since has served to modify these principles in any marked degree. He classified the pre-Reformation chalices in eight sections. Between the first four and the last four of these there was a marked distinction, due to the spread in the fourteenth century of the custom of laying down the chalice on the paten to drain after the ablutions. The effect of this custom was the abandonment of the round-footed chalice, which would be unstable in such a position, and the making of chalices with hexagonal bases. For as practical a reason the hemispherical design of the bowl of the chalice was abandoned in favour of a conical shape which would drain the more easily in such a position.