A very rare and important antique silver Holy Communion wafe...

Estimate

£200 - £300

A very rare and important antique silver Holy Communion wafer Pyx.

51mm wide

Information from our Vendor:
The family story is that it was given to our vendors' Great Grandmother by their father/father-in-law and it was an old family item. If it was their father-in-law he was a Hershig and at some point they fled from Austria\Switzerland and settled in Holland {possibly} in the late 1600s early 1700s. If it was our vendors side of the family they were an old catholic family. Whilst this box may be much newer it is definitely over 130 years old as this covers the span from our vendors/ Great Grandmother to their Grandmother, their mother and then to our vendor.

The vendor has approached the V&A museum for more information:


Reply from the V&A Museum
'This box is consistent with a pyx, in size and shape, but has no indication of religious associations.
The filigree consists of applied kidney shapes on the lid, and rings on the side, with a twisted wire trim. None of this is useful diagnostically, as all are found from the 16th-century onwards, in many countries. The leaves and flower petals on the lid are made from a continuous spiral of wire. This spiral shape does not occur before the early 19th century, in my experience, and is the most common kind of technique since. It is used universally, so does not help with origin. Irregular flower shapes are most common in the Balkans and south Asia, but I cannot find an exact match, so cannot rule out somewhere else. A well-documented Yugoslavian desk set [exists] with similar decoration on the blade of the paper knife, but none of the Balkan or Indian filigree I have looked at has a border of kidney shapes. Floral decoration like this is unusual elsewhere in Europe, so the box is unlikely to be from anywhere in Western Europe.'