A rare collection of communion silver – with some pieces dating back over 500 years – has just been bought for the City of Birmingham, in England, with the help of a £27,000 grant from the ArtFund.
The collection consists of a rare pre-Reformation silver parcel-gilt paten engraved with the Manus Dei (‘Hand of God’) c.1450; a silver communion cup (1634) and a pair of silver flagons and standing paten by London silversmith Anthony Nelme. The flagons are engraved with the inscription: ‘A Gift to Castle Bromwich Chapple in the Year 1723’.
