Featured Trying to identify this silver piece and its age

It has been tested and confirmed as silver. There are no visible hallmarks. I’m hoping to identify how old it is and get an idea of what it was used for. Any help would be appreciated.

12cm x 6.5cm

 

Judging by what I can read of the words, I would say Christian sacramental use.

 

A pyx, perhaps.

 

Looks like you got a bit help HERE ten months ago, especially about the Latin inscriptions, but no definitive answer. Info posted there, however, may be helpful here.

 

Not all the help is that helpful. It is most definitely not a chalice. If the Internet is to be believed, a ciborium is also shaped like a chalice, but with a lid. A pyx is used to hold extra wafers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyx

 

small marks may show up after a good polish...

 

What is the size? I think Bronwen's ID as ciborium or a pyx (both containers for the consecrated Host) seems plausible, but size may be a factor. Internet distinguishes between them by saying the ciborium is used to distribute communion within the church, while the pyx is used to convey the Host to shut-ins and the ill (and I presume to the dying). Come to think of it, Tabernacles of the Sacrament (where the Host is kept on the altar) are usually (always?) closed, so the laity does not commonly see the container for the Host until it is brought out for Mass. (Unlike a monstrance, which displays the Host.) I suggest you ask a priest.

(The problem I could imagine with this as a ciborium or pyx is that the interior might be too deep or varied in diameter to easily remove a Host during communion. Again, size would be a factor. A priest would know.)

 

This concerned me too, especially all the little pockets & recesses, where crumbs might lodge.

The one thing from the Reddit post that might save us chasing our tails:

"...while the inscription is certainly religious, it doesn't necessarily mark this object as something that was used for liturgical purposes..."

Still, it looks like a container for something of consequence.

Being neither Catholic nor gluten intolerant, it had never occurred to me, but was bound to come:

 

What is the height of the body of the receptacle, excluding foot, lid & finial?

 

My vote is for ciborium. (Lapsed Catholic and theologian.)

 

As an aside,that caked up polish drives me batty ! I always soak items like that in warm soapy water then take a toothbrush to it.

 

Same here. That polish may be hiding the marks.

 

interestingly. We (Parsi/Zoroastrian) also have this kind of a bowl in our ceremony. It holds a bowl of kumkum for the tikka.

"Pigani: It is a small metallic utensil (wine glass shaped) with a lid in which Kanku (vermilion) is kept to put an auspicious red mark/tila on the forehead. The Parsis generally put a vertical mark on the forehead of a man and a round one on the forehead of the woman. The former signifies rays of the sun, the latter signifies the moon. Rice is placed on to the red mark to signify plenty."

https://zoroastrians.net/2018/03/17/the-significance-of-ses/

 

This makes me have a picture in my mind of cloistered monks arguing over this like rabbis arguing in the Talmud.

 

Ten rabbis, fifteen opinions? I can see it.