THE CHURCH PLATE
Butterfield Church Plate
at St. Bartholomew on Stamford Hill
The sacred vessels used at Mass are called the church plate and St. Bartholomew’s is particularly fortunate to have plate that are early examples of gothic-revival design.
The set of church plate at St. Bartholomew on Stamford Hill consist of a chalice, two patens and a flagon. (Originally the set also included a bejewelled chalice, but this sadly disappeared in the 1980s.)
The pieces bear the assay stamp for 1852 and the maker’s mark of John Keith. They are early examples of the designs of the leading Victorian designer William Butterfield (1814 – 1900).
Butterfield and Keith
In 1842 Butterfield wrote to the recently founded Cambridge Camden Society (1839) encouraging its members to research and publish designs for church plate. He cited the example of an early sixteenth-century chalice at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge – originally owned by the pre-Reformation Bishop Richard Fox. The CCS responded the following year with some descriptions of mediaeval church plate though lamented that presently ‘the art of making good church plate is both lost and despised.’ In 1846 the Society published designs of gothic church plate for the first time – but this remained a paper exercise.
Butterfield took-up his own challenge and by 1851 was working with the noted London silversmith John Keith to make ‘correct’ church plate based on pre-Reformation English forms. Keith had started silversmithing in 1824 and had the rare distinction of forging a career mostly producing church requisites. He was followed into the craft by his son and Keith & Co went on to work with other important designers such as G. E. Street and William Burges.
Commissioning of the church plate
The church St. Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange was demolished in 1841 as part of a road-widening scheme by the City Corporation. Geographically the parish was amalgamated with S. Margaret Lothbury and the assets used to re-found and rebuild the church on the edge of the City in Moorgate. This was completed in 1850. The former parishioners made a gift of the Butterfield church plate to the re-founded parish. Old church plate from St. Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange was melted down for the purpose. An extant presentation plaque details the gift. St. Bartholomew on Moor Lane was an advanced Anglo-Catholic church and the style of the gift suggests that this was a tradition that she inherited from her predecessor.
St. Bartholomew on Moor Lane was demolished in 1902 and the assets used to re-found the parish on Stamford Hill. Many items from the church were transferred to this next location, including the plate.
Description of the Butterfield-Keith plate
The Chalice
It closely replicates the bowl, hexagon stem, hexagon lobed foot and large decorative knop of the Bishop Fox chalice. The interior of the bowl is gilded following mediaeval practice. The ritual nature of the chalice, designed for sacerdotal actions, is shown by the knop and the sacred monogram IHS that create a ‘front’ to the chalice. The monogram IHS – Jesus Hominum Salvator – was translated by nineteenth century Anglicans as Jesus Heavenly Saviour (though more correctly Jesus Saviour of All). This sacred name had been popularised by the Franciscan saint, S. Bernardine of Sienna in the fifteenth-century. The engraver has elaborated the letters forming the ‘h’ into a cross and the J and S are shown sprouting leaves – a sign of the life-giving nature of the Holy Name.
The Patens
The set contains two patens – one it would seem particularly made for use at the greater festivals judging by its additional ornamentation (possibly Christmass).
The plainer paten has a consecration cross at the top and running round the rim the inscription Per crucem et passionem tuam libera nos domine (Through Thy Cross and Passion Good Lord deliver us). This phrase appears in a similar form in the Anglican litany though the precise wording comes from an earlier Sarum litany. The words are sacrificial and recall pre-Reformation practice (and belief). The depressed centre of the paten is designed to hold wafer bread (a move away from common bread). Beneath where the host would sit is the sacred monogram IHS – each letter bears a crown and the messianic imagery is further emphasised with a Star of David. The use of the consecration cross on the paten (and also on the other paten and the flagon) suggests that a rite of consecration was anticipated – such a rite did not exist in the Prayer Book.
The more elaborate paten has similar decorative elements as the one already described but with additional enrichment and gilded. The engraved inscription again comes from the Sarum litany – Per mysterium sancti incarnationis tue nos domine (By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation Good Lord deliver us). The paten was originally gilded and is bejewelled with 17 red garnets and 19 pearls. Garnets denote sacrifice – particularly the shedding of Christ’s Precious Blood. Pearls represent that which is of the greatest value (from the parable of The Pearl of Great Price).
The Flagon
It has already been noted that this bears a consecration cross – here engraved into the cap. The inscription is the angelic message, Gloria in eccelsis Deo Alleluia – words of thanksgiving to God appropriate to a Eucharist. The flagon was re-gilded when the whole set was restored in 2014.
Conclusion
The church plate at St. Bartholomew shows a confidence in catholic ritualism while the Oxford Movement was in its first generation. The set is an early example of the collaboration between William Butterfield and John Keith. Before any others they revived the art of church plate. Their work was very influential and came to typify Victorian plate but in 1852 it was still far from typical.
A footnote: When William Butterfield died in 1900 he was buried quite near St. Bartholomew’s in Tottenham cemetery.