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Photograph
Skidmore, Francis Alexander - Enlarge image
Photograph
- Place of origin:
Coventry, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1860-1870 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Skidmore, Francis Alexander (the younger), born 1817 - died 1896 (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Albumen print on paper
- Credit Line:
Purchased with the assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries
- Museum number:
E.414-2006
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MB2E, shelf SH63, box M80
This albumen print, a type of photograph, dating to the 1860s-1870s, is by an unknown photographer and shows an ewer and a communion cup above which is a paten made by the firm of Francis Skidmore (1817-1896) known as Skidmore & Co., Coventry. The photograph is thus a record of the work done and comes from an archive of designs and photographs from the firm. Skidmore was a leading Victorian metalworker in the Gothic Revival style, which was an architectural movement the nineteenth-century practitioners of which sought to revive medieval forms. In addition to church plate Skidmore produced light fittings and furniture but was best known for his innovative architectural ironwork.
All the vessels shown in this photograph were used in the Christian liturgy or service. The ewer holds the eucharistic wine and the communion cup is an ecclesiastical drinking vessel for the wine. Patens were shallow plates on which the large Host rests at times before and after consecration.
