Both inscribed around the underside of the border: In usum Capellae Coll. Btae. Mariae Winton prope Winton Iohannes Nicholas Custos et Henrietta Maria uxor ejus. D.D. 1683 [For the use of the chapel of the College of the Blessed Mary of Winchester near Winchester. Given by John Nicholas, Warden, and his wife Henrietta Maria, 1683].

The donor, John Nicholas (1637-1712), was a Scholar of Winchester College (1653), Fellow of New College, Oxford; Warden of New College (1675-79); Warden of Winchester (1679-1712). Soon after becoming Warden, he oversaw a major restructuring of the chapel interior, much of the cost of which was met by Nicholas himself. Work began in 1681 and was completed in 1683. The main changes were the installation of an elaborate wooden screen and reredos (now in New Hall), a carved altar rail (still in situ) and a marble floor (replaced as part of Butterfield’s restorations in the 1860s). Nicholas also added to the stock of chapel plate by commissioning this pair of patens and an alms dish (Si160).

Mitchell (Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London) lists five pieces with this maker’s mark, not including the Winchester patens, dated from 1675/6 to 1684/5. He notes that the initials are common, but identifies John Buckler as the most likely candidate based on the design of the mark (buck = young male deer). The identification fits neatly with the dates of the known pieces, since Buckler became free in 1676 and died in 1688.

Literature: Philip Braithwaite, The Church Plate of Hampshire (London, 1909), pp. 365-66 (illustrated); Charles Oman, ‘The Winchester College Plate’, The Connoisseur (January, 1962), p. 32 (illustrated).

Exhibited: Winchester Cathedral Treasury, 1968

Provenance: Given by John Nicholas and Henrietta Maria Nicholas, 1683

Location: Treasury, Gallery 1