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Description: | A small round container that is a silver pyx used to protect and transport the Blessed Sacrament. Pyx in Latin is pyxis is a transliteration of the Greek: πυξί meaning box-wood receptacle, these developed into small round container made of wood or silver used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host (Eucharist), to the sick or those otherwise unable to come to a church in order to receive Holy Communion. They were also associated with recusant Catholicism in post-Reformation England at the turn of the seventeenth century.The obverse is damaged and crushed on one side and depicts Christ on the cross with INRI above which is an acronym in latin for Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum represents which in English reads as "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews with two kneeling supplicants probably Mary and the apostle John. The inscription reads VINCENTI DABO EI MANNA ABSCONDITUM APOC [APOC for apocalypse, the phrase occurring in Revelations 2:17] (pers comm Peter Davidson 30.03.15) translated TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES I WILL GIVE HIDDEN MANNA ALLELUIA.The reverse depicts a lamb standing on a grassy knoll with one raised foreleg looking back with a cross behind and pennant also depicting a cross. The inscription reads ECCE-AGNVS-DEI-ECCE-QUI-TOLLIT-PECCATA-MVNDI translated BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD BEHOLD YOU WHO TAKE AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD within and inner circular border with radiating lines held within an outer border divided by hatched lines decorated with alternating dots numbering between 2 and 6. There is no hallmark on the outside but there could be on the inside but the piece is too delicate and damaged to open. The pyx does bear similarities with 17th and early 18th century examples such as Museum no. M.18-2012 in the Victoria and Albert Museum but this type of pyx continues to be produced in the 21st Century. The PYX is very similar to an example donated to the National Museum of Ireland by the Sister of Mercy at St Mary's Nenagh. The pyx previously belonged to James Phelan, Bishop of Ossry from 1669 - 1695 and it was presented to him in 1647 on the occasion of his becoming Dean of Ossry in 1647 though it's provenance before this date is unknown. Raghnall O'Flionn Head of Collections at the National Museum commented that the pyx is comparable in its execution and significance to the chalice and paten of 1589 that were also donated by the sisters that were thought to be associated with patrons of the Holy Cross Abbey engraved with the initials TP and IEP, used by Barons of Loughmoe in County Tipparary (http://www.sistersofmercy.ie/news/article_display.cfm?article_id=2984).John Graffius Curator of Collections at Stoneyhurst College has commented that it is probably mid-17th century AD I would say (probably mid?)17thc and that the lack of a hallmark/maker's mark is not surprising if it is English recusant silver. The diameter is 53mm and the weight 27.90g.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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