have entirely disappeared, having become
useless from distortion or other damage. Such as have come down to our
own time owe their preservation to the added refinement of a silver
mount. Vessels of this kind are known as _mazer_ bowls, a word of
uncertain origin, but undoubtedly, in the medieval sense, indicating
wood of some more or less valuable kind, and not improbably, in the 16th
century, maple or a wood of that appearance. Spenser in the "Shepherd's
Kalendar" speaks of "a mazer ywrought of the maple warre." Although such
vessels are mentioned in the inventories and other contemporary records
as far back as the 12th century, no example is known to exist of an
earlier date than the 14th century, of which date there are two in the
possession of Harbledown hospital. This type of drinking vessel was in
common use in well-to-do households until the 16th century, when a
change of fashion and the greater luxury and refinement dictated the
adoption of more elegant and complex forms. The ordinary mazer was a
shallow bowl (see PLATE, Plate II.) about 6 in. in diameter, with a
broad expanding rim of silver gilt often engraved with a motto in black
letter or Lombardic capitals, at times referring to the function of the
cup, such as:--

"In the name of the Trinity
Fille the Kup and drinke to me."

or,

"Potum et nos benedicat Agios."

Within the bowl, in the centre is often found a circular medallion
called a "print" with some device upon it, engraved and filled with
enamel. The reason of this addition may conceivably be found in the fact
that such bowls were sometimes made from the lower half of a gourd or
calabash, in the centre of which would be a rough projection whence the
fibres of the fruit had diverged. A rarer form of mazer has the
characters just mentioned and in addition is mounted upon a high foot,
bringing it nearer to the category of standing cups or "hanaps." The
famous Scrope mazer belonging to York Minster (early 15th century)
stands upon three small feet. Of the hanap type examples are in the
possession of Pembroke College, Cambridge (the Foundress' Cup), and All
Souls' College, Oxford, the former an exceedingly fine specimen, of the
third quarter of the 15th century. The form dictated originally by the
simple wooden cup was at times carried out entirely in silver, or even
in stone, mazer-like cups being found either entirely in metal or with
the main portion made of serpentine or some other ornam