massive gold, chased and wrought with considerable taste; it was intended, probably, to bold an aromatic pastille or preservative against poison and infection. The diameter is nearly two inches; at one end there is a small ring, the attachment at the other end is lost. The weight is about two and a half ounces. An earthy matter was found within, which proved on exposure to heat to be highly aromatic. This ornament, of the close of the XVth or early part of the XVIth century, had been lately found on the Surrey side of the Thames by a bargeman who was endeavouring to fix his anchor in the bank of the river. A good example of the use of such "pomanders" is supplied by the portrait of a citizen of Frankfort, in the Stædel gallery in that city: it is dated 1504. A gold ball of like proportions is appended to his string of paternosters.[1]
By Mr. Forrest.—A Majolica dish, from the Baron collection at Paris, representing the finding of Romulus and Remus, painted by Francesco Xanto Avello, of Rovigo, at Urbino, in the year 1533. It is a beautiful example of gold and ruby-coloured lustre.—A small stove-tile, of Nuremberg pottery, date about 1560, on which is represented in relief a demi- figure of a crowned personage holding a covered cup; two escutcheons are introduced, or (?) a lion rampant azure, and argent, a bend sable.—A small tankard-shaped vessel of stone ware, of the XVIth century, ornamented with a medallion in relief, representing a male and a female head conjoined, their faces turned in contrary directions.
By Mr. W. Deere Salmon.—The iron cross-bar, part of the frame-work of a pouch or aulmonière, found in ploughing at Newark Priory, Surrey.
By Mr. Farrer.—Two fine plates of enamelled copper. One represents the Nativity: Joseph is seen seated at the foot of a bed in which the Virgin is reposing, and above is introduced the infant Saviour in swaddling clothes. The other bears a figure of St. Peter. The field is richly gilt in both examples, which are of the early part of the XIIth century.
By Mr. George V. Du Noyer.—A drawing representing the emblems of the Passion, carved in low relief on the soffit of the arch of a window at Ballinacarriga Castle, Dunmanway, co. Cork. (See woodcut.) The building was erected in 1585, and that date appears with the initials—R•MC•C—being those of Robert McCarty, called McCarty Carriga, carved on stone, as shown by a sketch sent by Mr. Du Noyer. With the more usual emblems,—the scourges, pillar, the ladder, spear-head, hammer and pincers, the foot pierced by a nail, and the pierced hand with a nail pointed towards it,—this curious carving presents some of less common occurrence.
- ↑ Hefner, Costumes, Div. iii.
