THE BAROQUE PERIOD

HE majority of the OLD PLATE, mainly of German origin, in Gallery 16, was collected by Herr Gutmann of Berlin, and subsequently acquired by Mr. Morgan.

The only piece of the GOTHIC PERIOD is a horn with silver mounts dating from the early part of the fifteenth century (located in Gallery 12). The use of the horn as a drinking vessel dates back to the Anglo-Saxons, and has survived in England until comparatively late times. Transference of the estates by the cup or horn, sword or helmet of the owner, without the formality of a written charter, was adopted by the Normans. These horns have been treasured in modern times as reliquaries, and the three most noted examples are located respectively in the Church of St. Serverin at Cologne, the Church of St. Servais at Maestricht, and at Gran Cathedral in Hungary.

To pass on from the Gothic period to the silversmiths' work of the RENAISSANCE, there are two flagons or

tankards of the sixteenth century, the smaller (Case A, Case A

second shelf, left of the center),' is worthy of remark, not only from its richly decorated details, but also from the fact that this form found its way across to England and was there copied by Elizabethan silversmiths. The other (Case A, second shelf, right of center) is a fine specimen of a type prevailing in North Germany and the Baltic provinces.

More remarkable is the superb SIXTEENTH-CENTURY German tankard (Case A, top shelf, extreme right), with a plain silver body enclosed in a framework of fine filigree, geometrical in general design, and embellished with embossed borders of amorini and medallions of Hector and Paris, a band with eight cupids' heads in relief, at intervals, encircling the centre of the body. This fine filigree work originated in Italy, and Benvenuto Cellini, in a well-known passage, mentions Piero di Nino as "a goldsmith who worked in filigree-an art which, while it affords great charm, is not without its difficulties."

A tankard, wholly different in style and character, is the rare and interesting specimen (Case A, bottom, extreme right) which is probably Hungarian of the early part of the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. It is of cast silver-gilt, octagonal in form, and entirely covered with conventional representations of tears and small oval medallions in slight relief. Catherine de Medici is known to

1 The cases are lettered starting from the doorway leading from Gallery 15 and keeping to the right.