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 More Contemporary Liturgical Silver
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| Author | Topic: More Contemporary Liturgical Silver |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:45 AM
  
[01-2509] Found another site with offerings of liturgical silver. These can be ordered, somewhat customized, and in your hand within two weeks. Wonderful silver, superb metal work, and not a mark in view. Here is the sum total of information offered about the silver and gold: 'Our long tradition of supplying only the highest quality vessels and metal ware. Utilizing the talents of craftsmen and goldsmiths from around the globe. Whether through our catalogs or our customizing & restoration service, we are able to provide a sacred vessel to suit your environment.' Our old friend 'the oldworld silversmith' seems to be at work here. A bit more information in this picture. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:47 AM
A bit more of un-illuminating information in this picture. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:50 AM
An interesting selection of croziers, one of the oldest forms of silver work. Has anyone ever seen one for sale? The metal is in the crook part, the shaft is wood tailored to the bishop's size. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:51 AM
Some great chalices. The one upper right you could sell by the dozen in Texas. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:53 AM
Gospel covers. [IMG]hhttp://www.smpub.com/ubb/images/06/01-2509-gosplecoversa.jpg[/IMG] IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:55 AM
Some interesting miscellany. In this note the small dishes on the bottom, with spoons. We ordinarily here think of them as sugar bowls. These are for incense. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-19-2006 12:56 AM
Another fooler, what appears to be a coffee urn is for holy water. The little round boxes are pyxes, for carrying consecrated hosts to the home bound. Very nice work here, and things we see for sale without realizing they are liturgical. I have encountered a number of pyxes being sold as spice boxes. IP: Logged |
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Raf Steel Posts: 94 |
posted 09-19-2006 02:43 PM
Maybe I'm old fashioned,but I find that these silversmiths ought to have a litle more inspiration. Their productions are simply rather "dull" copies of old pieces. Religious silversmiths used to make something out of their production. They used to be inventive an often chose a style that was contemporary! Maybe this is too personal a comment, but I prefer the "smith" in silversmith as I believe that they are at the pinacle of the "crafts" and I prefer a contemporary silversmiths working in a contemporary style (which of course can be based on history, why not); a wise man in the 19th century already said that one had to be from ones time ... IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 09-19-2006 04:10 PM
Unless I'm mistaken, the bottom row of the penultimate photo (the one with the censors) are aspersories and aspergillia, used for sprinkling holy water in procession. The row above that, the ones that look like they could be covered sugar dishes, I find referred to as simply "boats"; they store the incense that is later to be burned in the thurible, or censor itself. I personally have never seen a crozier for sale, but I did see one on that major online auction site. To my eye some of the pieces here, as with the previously posted maker's wares, are in a contemporary style. Remember that the Church is, in some ways and at some times more than others, a conservative institution; its material culture thus often struggles to balance tradition and modernity. Personally I've seen both modern-style and old-style pieces that I quite like, and that I could see as integrated into their time -- and others in both categories I consider hideous. IP: Logged |
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FredZ Posts: 1070 |
posted 09-19-2006 09:37 PM
Is there a market for Litergical Silver other than the church? Are there active collectors of the items we have been shown? I have seen spectacular work done for Litergical silver and have often wondered what the profitability is in making it. Many churches are not wealthy and the acquisition of these items often comes as gifts. Just curious. Fred IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-20-2006 12:05 AM
One of my points in doing this thread was to look at the types of silver available for purchase by the general public. So, I have not gone looking for specially commissioned works. Instead, I have looked at online catalogs from major suppliers. At liturgical silver that anyone can own. Which does give a very different view of the subject than the hand made artist pieces. Increasingly my interest focuses on the business of silver: the selling, the designing for a mass market, the whole distribution network. Which is a different focus from most who post here. The pieces here are not made by silversmiths working from original designs; they are not art. These are mass produced items meant for a wide market. IMHE, there is a large group of people who collect liturgical items. Every piece I ever had sold readily for good money. Having been in one home of a collector, where the central focus in the living room was a larger than life size brightly painted statue of the martyrdom of St. somebody, I would say that this is a lively area of collecting. The smaller pieces in particular are very saleable. And it is not unusual for devout Roman Catholics to have a monstrance in the home for family devotions. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-20-2006 12:09 AM
Some of the more contemporary designs. I was going to call this 'Post Modern Monstrance' but that sounds like a garage band. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-20-2006 12:09 AM
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-20-2006 12:10 AM
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 09-20-2006 12:22 AM
My other point, to the extent I have one, is to counter the gloom and doom we so frequently encounter here. About how the best of silver is behind us, nothing left but a few art pieces and mass produced left overs. What I went looking for was a lively business where fine quality silver was offered to the public. And I think that contemporary liturgical silver qualifies as a living market for the sort of silver work we tend to think of as being in the past. It does tend to concentrate among very high church Christians and Wiccans. You are not going to encounter this sort of silver at the Gospel Barn, or MegaChurch. But there is enough of it, along with the production facilities and skills, to sustain a small but vibrant market. What most strikes me is that this exists apart from the silver making system we focus on here at SMP. It is in a parrallel but separate universe from the one we are familiar with. Which makes me wonder how many more such streams of silver can be found. IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 09-20-2006 09:57 AM
Wow - chalices 2818 and 2819, with the gold drops on blood-red enamel, are fabulous! As are several of the other pieces here. Monstrance 7268 reminds me of the giant cross at El Vigia, in Ponce, PR. Although I have few pieces of Christian silver -- the prices tend to be beyond our means -- I have collected religious items from around the world for some years. And I have encountered many other collectors, some devoutly religious themselves, some going for a kind of Gothic kitsch aesthetic, some admiring the design or craftsmanship, some interested in the religiosity of the work. My own interests are in the variety of responses to the religious experience. One area where popular market work in precious metals is still booming is jewelry. The average person nowadays can't afford a silver service for eating, and even if they could fashion prioritizes instead something like an RV or a boat or a flashy car (encouraged by the market, which offers long term loans for such purchases; just try to get a low-interest loan to buy a silver service for 12, or a Georgian monteith!). But a visit to any craft fair or even flea market will reveal huge amounts of silver jewelry (gold to a lesser extent), ranging from mass-produced to run-of-the-mill handmade to fine art work. The vast majority of people doing this work will never be widely known or collected, but I suspect that's where the average person's investment in precious metals work goes these days. IP: Logged |
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