CAELATURA—MEDIAEVAL PLATE. 163
be
extinct—is secured by its newly-created archaeological value. Such
pieces, however, being made for certain definite uses, generally to
contain relics, are modelled after one pattern, that of a chapel, a
coffret, or a bust, and exhibit little of the licentious ingenuity
which designed the subtleties in silver that encountered the
astonished guests at the tables of the dukes of Anjou, of their rivals
of Burgundy, and, in a greater or less degree, of the wealthy merchants
of Flanders and of England. The following items will fully bear out
these observations ; they are extracted from the accumulation of
plate, mostly decorative, mentioned above.
"
No. 76. A wheelbarrow resting upon a foot carved with vine-leaves,
whieh rests upon iv little lions ; the said foot is pointed before and
behind, and at one of the ends is a man who has the handles in his
girdle, and trundles the said barrow ; and he has on a fur hood, and
the point of his hood comes over his forehead : before him is a woman
who with her right hand holds the barrow, and in her left holds a
Danish axe, and wears an old woman's hood, the which hood is after the
fashion of Picardy ; and on the said barrow is a cask tied with several
straps, and the ends of the said cask are enamelled in green and blue
with several little beasts ; and the bottom of the barrow and the
resting-place of the goblet are of the same enamel, without any
difference : and in one of the ends of the said barrel is a tap like
that of a fountain ; and the said rest for the aforesaid goblet is made
with battlements, and iv leaves higher than the battlements ; the which
rest is fixed within the belly of the said cask, and does not take off.
And the goblet which rests upon the said seat is of the same enamel
above mentioned, and the bottom and the lid of the same enamel, and a
little knosp in gold on top of the cover in the same enamel; and the
foot, man, and
Κ 2
