Featherstone Vaults

Collection

Sacred & Religious

Ecclesiastical and devotional objects in bronze, silver, stone and wood.

Historic gilded-silver processional cross from a medieval art museum collection.
Representative collection image · Wuselig / Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain

How we catalogue it

Age and surface are valued above brightness. Patina is left undisturbed and later alterations are recorded rather than removed. Material is handled with attention to its religious significance and to the communities it came from.

Ecclesiastical · Devotional · Reliquary

Currently catalogued01

Where an entry has not yet been photographed its plate is shown blank. Featherstone Vaults photography replaces them entry by entry; no stand-in imagery is used.

Buying in this department

What we look for

Age and surface before brightness. Devotional bronze, silver and pewter acquire a surface over centuries that cannot be put back once it has been polished off, and a great deal of ecclesiastical material on the market has been cleaned to a shine by someone who thought they were improving it. We leave patina undisturbed and we buy accordingly.

Later alteration is the norm rather than the exception in this field. Objects are repaired, re-mounted, re-gilded and adapted as liturgical use changes. We record those changes rather than conceal them.

How the material reaches the market

Much of it comes from church closures, diocesan disposals, religious houses and private devotional collections. Where an object has come through a formal disposal we ask for the paperwork and supply it with the object.

Objects of continuing religious significance are handled with that in mind. Where a piece would be better returned to use or to a community, we will say so, and occasionally that is what happens to it.

Worth asking

Has the surface been stripped or re-patinated. Is the mount, shaft or base original to the piece. Does it come from a documented disposal. Has any element been replaced.

Further reading