This foreign mark, illustrated in Table, p. 357, was used from 1876 to 1904. It seems unfair to British manufacturers that foreign silver is assayed here for competitive sale with home manufactured plate; it bears the time-honoured symbols that have been used in this country for four hundred years. There is also the possibility that some fraudulent dealer may remove the F, and straightway the piece becomes British. It was not in the public interest that such a loose state of things should continue. By the Hall Marking of Foreign Plate Act (4 Edw. VII. c. 6), Foreign silver plate was marked by the Assay Offices with the following marks _in addition to_ the Standard Mark and the Date Letters. In 1906, by Order in Council, certain alterations were made in the London, Sheffield, Glasgow and Dublin marks on Foreign plate assayed. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [1] Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Hall-marking of Gold and Silver Plate, 1879. [2] A period of eleven months. The year 1696 ended on 24th March, and the year 1697 commenced on 25th March. II ECCLESIASTICAL PLATE [Illustration: ELIZABETHAN CHALICE AND COVER. Silver-gilt. Exeter pattern. Inscription, “St. Petrox Exon.” Exeter hall-mark 1572. (_In possession of the Parish of St. Petrock, Exeter._)] [Illustration: ELIZABETHAN CHALICE AND COVER. Silver-gilt. Inscription, “The Paryshe of Trynitye in the yeare of our Lorde 1575.” Exeter hall-mark, 1575. (Marks illustrated p. 391.) (_In possession of the Parish of Trinity, Exeter._)] CHAPTER II ECCLESIASTICAL PLATE The Chalice, Elizabethan forms, with cover for use as paten--The destruction of silver plate at the Reformation--The Exeter style of chalice--The sacramental flagon--The Communion Cup--Specimens of patens. In regard to sacred vessels in use in this country before the Reformation it is noteworthy that in design they cling to a national form and differ very considerably from those used in early mediæval days or at the present time in the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to the Reformation the plate found on the altar for the celebration of the Holy Sacrament consisted of a chalice, a paten, two cruets to contain wine and water for consecration, which were really two ewers with lids of small size, and the pyx in which the Eucharist was reserved. The chalice consisted of three parts: the cup or bowl, the stem which in its middle swelled out into a bulb called the knop, for the convenience of holding it, and the foot. The paten was a small salver slightly sunk in the middle like an ordinary plate.