ave gratia anno domini 1503 bronze (?)platter

[iknowlittle]

Hi,

I am afraid I know nothing about antiques except that they are old! Sorry! My hubs and I inherited some items and sold smaller ones that just looked like old rubbish on E Bay. A fellow E Bayer contacted me to say I had undersold myself and I should really get things valued first. I was quite happy to make £26!
Anyway, we have a couple of things that I thought I should check out. One is a platter with the latin statement as above "Ave gratia 1503 anno domini" I looked up on the net to see what I could find and all I could find was a bonafide 1503 bronze alms platter. It was an old post from another site but the personreplying seemed quite excited by it. To me it looks like a brass plate that an old person would hang on their wall along with their horse brasses and shoes etc!
If anyone can shed light for me I would be very grateful.
I have photos but I can't figure out how to post. Do I have to post them online first then put a link to here?

Iknowlittle :-)

[iknowlittle]

[iknowlittle]

[mart]

I am certainly not much on the Latin word meanings but from what I can gather,, Ave is a greeting of sorts and means hail,, as in Hail Mary, Gratia means grace or rejoice !! Anno domini is of course "In the year of our Lord" !!
If its made of bronze is hard to determine !! Bronze is a very heavy metal and am wondering if yours seems heavy for its size ??

[iknowlittle]

Thanks,

I wouldn't say it is particularly heavy for it's size. You would be able to hold it with one hand without much discomfort.

IKL

[mart]

Here are the major happenings in 1503,,, so your tray could be commemorating one of these !!
1503
24 January - Construction of Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey begins.[1]
8 August - Marriage of James IV of Scotland and Henry VII's daughter, Margaret Tudor.[1]
19 November - William Warham enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury

[CuriousCollector]

Ave Gratia is a truncation of the standard Catholic Marian prayer -- "Hail Mary, full of grace" (Ave Maria, gratia plena...).

Three alms platters in brass, one of which is similar to this one, sold at Christie's for 470 pounds.
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=4015673

I don't know enough about them to say whether yours would fetch its one-third share of such bounty.

Edited to add:  I don't know enough about religious history at this time to speculate much on the date of 1503.  A quick Google search, and variations of the search, all point to 1503 as the start of the Papacy of Julius II, the "Warrior Pope" who chased invaders from Italy and consolidated papal power in Rome.  He was also famous as a patron of arts and literature.