incense boat thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sacred Silver & Stained Glass, Room 83, The Whiteley Galleries

incense boat

Incense Boat
ca. 1760-1762 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Sardinian Embassy Plate
This censer forms part of a service made for Roman Catholic worship. The maker, Andrea Boucheron was a goldsmith from Turin who trained in Paris and worked at the court of Savoy from 1737, when he was appointed as goldsmith there. His work is strongly influenced by Paris fashions.
The Duchy of Savoy was represented in London by the Sardinian embassy in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The embassy chapel, with seven chaplains, was one of the most prestigious in London, and its services were open to the public. The survival of this altar service is a unique reminder of an openly practised form of Catholicism, from a time when the faith was severely restricted in England.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titleincense boat (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Silver
Brief description
silver, Turin, 1760-1770, marked with the monogram 'VA', for Andrea Boucheron and Giovan Battista Boucheron, his son and successor.
Physical description
Incense boat, silver, stamped with the mark of Lorenzo Lavy, Turin, about 1760. The boat of curved upper profile with rococo shell decoration on trumpet shaped foot.
Dimensions
  • Height: 15.5cm
  • Length: 22.50cm
  • Width: 8cm
  • Weight: 16.64oz
Marks and inscriptions
Punched with the maker's mark 'VA' in monogram, for the workshop of Andrea Boucheron and his son and successor, Giovan Battista. (Andrea Boucheron (d. 1761), goldsmith to the House of Savoy, and his son and successor,Giovan Battista Boucheron (d. 1815) are both associated with the production of this set of altar plate. Although in the 1960s their workshop mark was plausibly deciphered as the letters 'LLV' and attributed to the medallist Lorenzo Lavy, also a royal employee in Turin, more recently scholars have argued the mark should be read as 'AV', the monogram of Victor Amadeus, ie. King Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, Andrea Boucheron's first royal patron.)
Gallery label
  • Altar Plate Silver Turin work about 1760 Mostly with the mark of Lorenzo Lavy and with the assayer's mark of Carlo Micha. A cross, censer, incense-boat and cruets with a salver, engraved with the arms of Carlo Emmanuele III, King of Sardinia. Lent by the Church of St. Anselm and St. Cecilia (formerly the Sardinian Embassy Chapel).(1966)
  • Altar Cross, Censer, Incense Boat, Salver and Pair of Cruets [The Sardinian Embassy Plate ] This group forms part of a service made for Roman Catholic worship. The maker, Lorenzo Lavy, was a goldsmith and medallist from Turin who trained in Paris. His work, in the latest Parisian style, is typical of silver produced for the court of the Duchy of Savoy. The Duchy of Savoy was represented in London by the Sardinian embassy in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The embassy chapel, with seven chaplains, was one of the most prestigious in London, and its services were open to the public. The survival of this altar service is a unique reminder of an openly practised form of Catholicism, from a time when the faith was severely restricted in England. Turin, Italy, about 1760–70; by Lorenzo Lavy (1720–89) Silver and glass Engraved with the arms of Charles Emanuel III Lent by the Church of St Anselm and St Cecilia, Kingsway(22/11/2005)
Credit line
Lent by the Church of St. Anselm and St. Cecilia, Kingsway, London
Object history
This is part of a set of silver altar plate made in the royal workshops in Turin for the Sardinian Embassy Chapel near Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. The altar service originally included a chalice with paten, a ciborium, a monstrance, holy water bucket, sanctus bell and a set of six candlesticks (the latter survive today in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). The chapel began to function in late June 1759, but was destroyed by fire in November 1759. Although it was rebuilt, it was once more destroyed during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in June 1780. Curiously, there is no reference to the chapel plate in the surviving documentation that relates to the foundation of the chapel, or in the 1761 plans for its reconstruction, and its survival in such good condition suggests it must have been stored elsewhere. Subsequently the embassy chapel was replaced by the Roman Catholic church of St Anselm and St Cecilia, Kingsway, and the plate was transferred there.
Historical context
Used by the Catholic community which worshipped at the Sardinian Embassy Chapel from about 1760.
Associations
Summary
The Sardinian Embassy Plate
This censer forms part of a service made for Roman Catholic worship. The maker, Andrea Boucheron was a goldsmith from Turin who trained in Paris and worked at the court of Savoy from 1737, when he was appointed as goldsmith there. His work is strongly influenced by Paris fashions.
The Duchy of Savoy was represented in London by the Sardinian embassy in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The embassy chapel, with seven chaplains, was one of the most prestigious in London, and its services were open to the public. The survival of this altar service is a unique reminder of an openly practised form of Catholicism, from a time when the faith was severely restricted in England.
Bibliographic references
  • Oman, Charles. 'The Plate of the Chapel of the Sardinian Embassy'. In: The Burlington Magazine, vol. 108, no. 763, October 1966, pp. 500-503.
  • Le Corbeiller, Clare. 'A Tale of Two Cities'. In: Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, vol. 8, 2003. pp. 146-55.
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:ST ANSELM.2

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Record createdNovember 21, 2005
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