Chalices are used to serve the consecrated wine at the Christian service of Eucharist or Mass, and so are always regarded as high status objects. The interior is always gilded (coated in a thin layer of gold), even in simple vessels. Here, the whole object is gilt, and enriched with coloured enamels and engraving. The bowl is engraved with the Latin inscription: Calicem Salutaris Accipiam et Nomen Domini Invocabo, which means I will receive the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord – a quotation from Psalm 116 in the Bible.
This vessel was designed by John Hardman Powell, who succeeded his father in law, the architect A W N Pugin, as the principal designer for firm of John Hardman & Co. Like the great majority of metalwork designed for the church in the mid and later 19th century, it is executed in a revived gothic style, looking back to the designs of the Middle Ages.
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