3-078-165 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Curious pieces of old English silver found in Whittlesea Mere, 1890. 'The two pieces of old English church plate, represented by our Illustrations, were part of the collection of the late Mr. William Wells, sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods on Tuesday, June 3. They were found in the draining of Whittlesea Mere, and are supposed to have belonged to Ramsey Abbey, and to have been hidden at the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. One is a censer or thurible, of the fourteenth century; the other, an incense-boat in the form of a ship: both have been described in treatises on the antiquities of art'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.