November 2008

In this month's issue

Explore the Apollo archive

Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

Archive

Although older and more valuable objects are normally in cathedral treasuries, all remain the property of parish churches or cathedrals, a vivid expression of the continuing generosity of pious Anglicans. However, over the past 150 years, old silver has steadily disappeared from English churches, sold off as two phenomena worked together: on the one hand, Victorian church reforms and the preference for Gothic-revival altar plate, on the other, the burgeoning market for antique plate. Already by 1900, antiquaries publishing church plate county by county (the basis for much silver scholarship) were concerned about sales; in 1914 the V&A set up the Church Plate Loan Gallery in response, and since the late 1950s the Goldsmiths’ Company has assisted cathedrals in setting up diocesan treasuries, a story told in the exhibition’s catalogue by Susan Hare. A flurry of high-profile sales by churches in the 1960s led to a tightening of criteria. Today the procedure to obtain a faculty to sell is elaborate. But the sheer volume of plate in church ownership, the financial needs of poor rural parishes and the reluctance of local-authority museums to manage long-term loans for what is perceived as a narrow sector, means that this exhibition has a key educational role. Is it right to bestow wealth in the visible service of God, or should the money be given to the poor? For the book that accompanies this exhibition, edited by Schroder, leading scholars have written essays, with a typically thoughtful foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He raises the ancient dilemma for Christians, indeed for all believers, of whether we should lay up treasures on earth or in heaven.