Chalice, silver, parcel-gilt, semi precious stones, made in France, about 1900

Silver, parcel gilt with circular enamel plaques of the Holy Family around the bowl and saints around the foot. Filigree decoration encases the bowl and foot. Compresssed spherical knot and stepped collet above the sexfoil foot. Decorated with semi precious jewels.

Lent by St. George's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark

The Gothic Revival
In the Victorian period a dramatic and profound change took place in religious life. Centred on a renewed interest in the Middle Ages, it affected the appearance of churches and how services were conducted. The influential architect A.W.N. Pugin promoted the Gothic as the true Christian style. Although Pugin was Catholic, his theory appealed to Anglicans of the Oxford Movement - radicals who hoped to restore pre-Reformation services to the Church of England.

The Cambridge Camden Society, founded in 1839, studied the past to identify the medieval architecture and furnishings that would be appropriate for the revived services. The society became an arbiter of style, offering an Anglicised version of the Gothic. By the 1870s some of the equipment normally found in Catholic worship, such as the ciborium, was appearing in Anglican churches.

It was not universally welcomed. Some observers found the incense, the altar cross and the emphasis on ritual scandalously 'Popish' or 'high church'.

The Gothic Revival in Europe
The Gothic revival in Europe owed more to nationalism than religious zeal. The completion of Cologne's medieval cathedral was an affirmation of German culture. In the Habsburg empire, Czechs and Hungarians similarly expressed national pride through Gothic architecture.

Champions of the Gothic claimed by the 1850s that the style was triumphant in Europe. But classical architecture remained a serious rival, even in church building. Much of the most important Gothic work was in church restoration. In Germany and France, goldsmiths like Franz Xaver Hellner supplied Gothic church furnishings.

The chalice, typical of French ecclesiastical metalwork between 1820 and 1920, was used during the Mass to serve the consecrated wine. It is based on medieval prototypes but made by industrial methods. The filigree and enamel were therefore cheaper processes than they had been in the past, though they came in a limited range of colours.

LOAN:SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL.2-2005