Pastoral Staff, in four parts, ivory, with ebony staff, from an abbot, by Joseph Deutschmann, South Germany, after 1745

The crook of the staff is carved with four cherubim, shell-like and scroll motifs, the head and arms of a putto wearing a bishop's mitre and a further winged putti below. In front of the putto with the mitre is the coat of arms of Cistercian monastery at Aldersbach in the diocese of Passau, Lower Bavaria, and the Holy Spirit, incised with the motto 'IN SIGNUM'. The other full-length putto holds the coat of arms of Theobald II Reitwinkler, the abbot of the monastery. The body of the staff is composed of three cylindrical pieces of ebony, with decorative fluted ivory fringes, and metal screw fittings. The crook of the staff is made of two large pieces of ivory from the same tusk fitted together, with smaller additions at the side.

Acquired from the Bernal collection (Sale, Christie's, March, 1855, No. 1685), for £20.

Provenance

Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.

In 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.

When Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.

This elaborate crozier was made by Joseph Deutschmann (or Teutschmann), who also executed decorative and architectural sculpture for the Aldersbach monastery in Bavaria from 1762/3 onwards.
The crook of the staff is made of two large pieces of ivory from the same tusk fitted together, with smaller additions at the sides, carved with four cherubim, shell-like and auricular scroll motifs, as well as the head and arms of a putto wearing a bishop's mitre, and a further winged putto below. In front of the putto with the mitre is the coat of arms of Cistercian monastery at Aldersbach in the diocese of Passau, Lower Bavaria, and the Holy Spirit, incised with the motto 'IN SIGNUM'. The other full-length putto holds the coat of arms of Theobald Ritlinger, the abbot of the monastery. The eyes of the cherubim and putti are painted, and their playful air seems to act as a witty counterpoint to the solemn liturgical function of the pastoral staff. The body of the staff is composed of three cylindrical pieces of ebony, with decorative fluted ivory fringes, and metal screw fittings. Theobald Ritlinger became abbot of the monastery in 1745; the staff was probably made shortly after that date.

2166&A-1855