Impressive Late 1800s/Early 1900s Continental Silver Hand Chased Gilt Ciborium

Presented is an excellent antique gilt silver ciborium. This piece dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s, and is likely of continental European make, though it could be American. The lack of hallmarks make it hard to say for certain, but it's not unusual for religious articles to go un-hallmarked and un-taxed. Whatever the case it's a wonderfully made piece of silver, with richly detailed hand chased decoration throughout in the form of flowers, stands of wheat, and clusters of grapes, all against a stippled texture background.

Though this piece may have started life as a ciborium, based on the lip around the rim, it does not have a lid now, but it is perfectly useable as a chalice, cup or goblet.

This piece is in great overall condition. The details of the chasing are nice and crisp. There is some wear to the gilding, most notably on the shaft, but the gold wash of the interior of the cup portion is in very good shape. There are traces of a lacquer around the base and the side of the cup portion, this piece would benefit from being professionally cleaned on a polishing wheel, but we leave this to the buyer. No splits, no dents, no monograms, no monogram removals, and no repairs.

This piece is not stamped or hallmarked that we could find, but we have tested it with nitric acid and guarantee it to be at least 850 purity, likely 900.

This piece stands about 9 1/8 inches tall and measures about 5 ½ inches in diameter around the base, or 4 inches in diameter at the rim.

This piece weighs 401 grams or 14.1 regular ounces.

-jm