A VICTORIAN PARCEL-GILT SILVER CENTREPIECE

St. George was a soldier of Cappadocian Greek origins, a Praetorian Guard for the emperor Diocletian, who sentenced him to death for him refusing to renounce his faith. The earliest known depictions of St. George killing the dragon came later, from Cappadocia in the 11th century. He became the patron saint of England during the Tudor period, due to his popularity at the time of the Crusades and Hundred Years' War. His status was much revived in the Victorian period with the taste for historicism.