CHALICE London, 1576/77. Unidentified Maker's mark M in a shield.

Conical cuppa on a round, stepped foot. Smooth walls, engraved with a circumferential band of foliage, which is repeated on the domed lid. The lid has a flat finial engraved with the date 1576.
H 21.5 cm, 340 g.

Provenance:
- Swiss private property.

Chalices of this type were used in Protestant worship for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The chalice on offer follows the design of the so-called Elizabethan communion chalices, which were widely used in England during the Reformation. Protestants rejected the Roman Catholic belief in "transsubstantiation," in which bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Christ during the Mass. They proposed instead a symbolic service of communion. In this service, the congregation was to regularly partake not only of bread but also of wine, whereas before they had been primarily spectators. In order to consolidate this break with traditional religion, the Reformed Church in England launched a program around 1560, replacing "old" chalices with "modest chalices" with a prescribed design like the one on offer.