Treasures of Silver at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

An account of the silver and silver-mounted artefacts belonging to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Oliver Rackham (Author), John Cleaver (Photographs by)

9780521818803, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 December 2002

320 pages, 448 b/w illus. 8 colour illus.
25.4 x 19.8 x 2.8 cm, 1.102 kg

This is an account of the unique assemblage of silver and silver-mounted artefacts belonging to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, some of them dating back to the College's foundation 650 years ago. They include extraordinary objects such as a thirteenth-century drinking vessel made of the horn of an extinct animal, as well as the everyday tools and utensils of past centuries. Although some of them are well known to art historians, they have never been published in detail. The objects are especially significant for being documented in the College's archives from the fourteenth century onwards. The book investigates the objects' construction, how the College came by them, their original meaning and context, how they came to survive the depredations of the Civil War, what happened to those that do not survive, evidence of wear and repair, and what they were (and still are) used for.

Foreword by the Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Professor Haroon Ahmed
Preface
1. Outline of the college's history
2. Introduction to plate
3. Plate in the college
4. The Great Horn or Bugle
5. Plate of the gilds: the Coconut Cup
6. Medieval college plate: mazers, seals, and the Knob
7. Parkerians and Elizabethan plate (with a contribution by C. Hall)
8. Fellow-commoners and the Civil War
9. Chapel plate
10. Post-1690 drinking vessels
11. Coffee pots, also Argyle, teapots and associated vessels
12. Candlesticks
13. Salvers or waiters
14. Inkstands or standishes
15. Casters or dredgers, cruet frames, grinders, and the administration of sugar
16. Salts and saltspoons
17. Mustards and mustard spoons
18. Tools or flatware
19. Instruments of tobacconing
20. Sporting plate
21. Things useful and extravagant
22. Modernistic plate
Appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Museum, historic sites, gallery & art guides [WTHM], Antiques & collectables: gold & silver [other than jewellery WCR], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]