Silver, gilded silver and brass, Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium), Ypres, dated 1735, marked for 1736, mark of Pieter Joannes Baelde.

Monstrance of silver, gilded silver and gilded brass. The oblong, four-sided foot curves gently and is embossed with a band of acanthus leaves, two cherubs' heads and two blank cartouches for engraved arms. Above the circular knop is a wide socket embossed in the form of overlapping leaves, which secures the rays that emanate from the central window of the monstrance. Stalks of wheat and a vine with grapes are applied to the socket and rays. Above the monstrance window, the figure of God the Father and the Holy Dove are applied to rays; above them, three cherubs' heads and a closed crown.

Given by Col. Fearon Tipping.

The worn inscription on the foot of the monstrance records it was commissioned by an association in Ypres. An unpublished study on the object (Shaw: 1989, pp.19-20) has argued that the 'Triplex Sodalitas' of the inscription refers to the Holy Trinity confraternity of Ypres, who raised money to ransom Christians held hostage by Muslim pirates along the Northern and Western coasts of Africa. The form of the inscription incorporates a chronogram which gives the date of the commission (or presentation) as 1735. Museum records state that Colonel W. Fearon Tipping, of Brasted, Kent, gave the monstrance to the V&A in 1909.
The monstrance does not survive in its original form. The frame around the central window is crudely embossed compared to the work on the foot and may be a later substitution, together with the glass panes and the rebate which secures them. The seven gilded brass rays that extend from the top of the monstrance are a later addition which support the cast and applied figure of God the Father and the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove). The three heads of cherubs topped by a crown were probably added at the same time. Although this iconography is not inappropriate or unknown on monstrances from Belgium and the Netherlands during this period, the size of these applied elements unbalances the overall design and renders it top-heavy.

A monstrance (from the Latin 'monstrare', 'to show') displays the consecrated bread or Host, which in Catholic belief is the body of Christ. The ears of wheat on this monstrance allude to the wheat used to make the unleavened wafer that becomes the Host. The grapes and vine leaves that encircle the central window refer to the consecrated wine drunk by the priest during Mass which miraculously becomes the blood shed by Christ on the cross. The figure at the top of the monstrance is God the Father, while the dove below him represents God as the Holy Spirit. When the Host was displayed in the window, it would symbolise God's third, earthly, incarnation as Jesus Christ. Although the figure of God the Father here is probably a later addition, it is entirely appropriate to the theological message conveyed by the monstrance. The use of rays to frame the central window and create a radiant, sun-like effect, was common in eighteenth-century church plate designs. However, the origins of the device appear to date back to the late-sixteenth-century Hispanic world, where Catholic priests merged the imagery of Inca and Mexica sun-worship with Christian teachings that equated Christ and His teachings with the sun and light.

M.125-1909