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THREE 17TH CENTURY SILVER CRUCIFIXES, ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT OLIVER PLUNKETT, FINAL VICTIM OF THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION KNOWN TO HISTORY AS THE POPISH PLOT. Comprising a silver...

THREE 17TH CENTURY SILVER CRUCIFIXES, ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT OLIVER PLUNKETT, FINAL VICTIM OF THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION KNOWN TO HISTORY AS THE POPISH PLOT. Comprising a silver reliquary crucifix, of hollow construction, the hinged cover opening to reveal compartments for the storage of relics, cast figures of Christ Crucified and the Madonna and Child affixed to front and rear, with integral suspension loop and ring suspender, continental, apparently no maker's mark or hallmarks, probably Italian, mid 17th century, circa 1650, 3'' (7.5cm) high approx., including suspension ring, along with a Galway silver rosary crucifix, the upright and transom of the cross of typical hollow tubular construction, the four extremities of the cross with spreading terminals, cast figures of Christ Crucified and the Madonna and Child affixed to front and rear, integral suspension loop and ring suspender, one hollow silver rosary bead attached, apparently no maker's mark or hallmarks, mid to late 17th century, circa 1674, 4.75'' (12.2cm) high approx including attached rosary bead, and an Irish provincial silver mid 17th century bishop's silver pectoral cross, cast, of plain unadorned rectangular form, with integral transverse suspension loop to take silver loop suspender (subsidiary suspension ring to take the ribbon or collar for wearing now lacking), engraved on the front with a stylised facing figure of Christ Crucified, the reverse engraved in 2 lines and in a fine rococo hand with the initials ''C - P K'', apparently no maker's mark or hallmarks (probably Kilkenny, circa 1648), 3.6'' x 2.4'' (9.2x6.1cm). Lot accompanied by photograph of a painting of Oliver Plunkett wearing his pectoral crucifix, and a photograph of the painting of 1644 of Bishop Rothe wearing an identical crucifix. The whole housed in a custom made display tray. Oliver Plunkett is known to have brought Italian silver objects with him when he returned to Ireland in 1670, including the pair of candlesticks that he pawned in 1674. A reliquary cross, worn beneath the clothes, would have been a sensible option when travelling through post-Reformation Europe. There is a similar continental silver reliquary crucifix in the collection of the Hunt Museum, Limerick. He is also known to have visited Galway on at least one occasion, in 1674, when he visited Dr Lynch, Archbishop of Tuam. Galway rosaries, with their unusual crucifixes, were in popular use from the 17th century onwards, the basic design and idiosyncratic tubular construction remaining unchanged for several hundred years. The pectoral cross forms part of the recognized insignia of a Roman Catholic bishop, and is worn on the breast outside the clothes, suspended from a ribbon or collar. They first appeared on the continent about the 16th century and were in widespread use by the 17th century. The initials CPK engraved on the reverse of this cross are in a rococo style that first came into use sparingly at the end of the 16th century and had become commonplace by the mid 17th century. For a contemporary alphabet, illustrating capital letters of similar style, see The Pens Excellencie (Martin Billingsley, 1618, page 18). Pages from this book can be viewed on the internet at www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/billingsley/ (link f.21r+). The manner in which the three initials are engraved on the reverse of this cross in 2 lines suggests that they are those of a person of title, with the initial of that person's Christian name on the first line, and the first letters of the surname and title on the second line. The initials engraved on this cross may therefore be those of Christopher, Plunkett of Killeen, 10th Baron Killeen and 2nd Earl of Fingal. If they are his, then the intriguing possibility arises that this bishop's pectoral cross may originally have been a present from him to his uncle Patrick Plunkett, on the occasion of his being consecrated Archbishop of Ardagh by the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, at Kilkenny in 1648. Christopher Plunkett was alive and actively engaged with the Confederates at Kilkenny in 1648. St Oliver Plunkett is known to have attended Bishop Patrick Plunkett on his deathbed, and the pectoral cross could presumably have come to Oliver at that point. Despite extensive searches through the collections of museums in Britain and Ireland, no bishop's pectoral cross of comparable design and construction has been located, which indicates that this cross is of a type produced in very limited numbers, probably at a provincial location. The stylised engraved figure of Christ Crucified, as opposed to the more usual realistically modelled relief figure, is also unusual, and likewise points to a provincial workshop, lacking the capacity to produce objects cast in high relief. Although no other datable example of a similar pectoral cross is believed to have survived, the attribution to Kilkenny and a date in the mid 17th century is underpinned by a contemporary portrait of David Rothe (1573-1651), who was Bishop of Ossory 1618-51. In that portrait, painted in 1644, Rothe wears a pectoral cross identical in design and construction to the crucifix offered here. A physical comparison of the Bishops pectoral cross offered here and the cross depicted in the portrait of Bishop Rothe confirms that both crosses are of the same size, shape and design, both being of plain, flat, unadorned rectangular form, and with the same method of suspension, and integral transverse suspension loop. Both crosses are probably from the same small provincial workshop, and the Rothe Cross provides further pointers to a Kilkenny connection and place of origin. There is a strong Kilkenny connection. Rothe was born in Kilkenny, and educated at the Academy at St Canice's Cathedral. Appointed Vicar Apostolic to the diocese of Ossory in 1609, he was consecrated Bishop of Ossory in 1618. Rothe was a central figure at the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny. As a senior ecclesiastical leader he was influential in setting up the Confederate Assembly, where he sat as a peer, and he was in Kilkenny when that city surrendered to Cromwell's army in March 1650. The rarity of mid 17th century ''Kilkenny'' type bishops pectoral crucifixes is hardly surprising. For most of the period between 1620 and 1647, when Rinuccini consecrated eleven bishops in Kilkenny to fill the vacant Irish sees, Rothe had been the only resident Irish bishop, and within seven years of the 1647 consecrations all the new Irish bishops had either been hanged or gone into exile. In outline, the cross offered here is also remarkably similar in form to the plain cross that the Confederate Catholics of Kilkenny adopted as their symbol, used to emblazon their flags, and as the central device on the coinage of crowns and halfcrowns that they struck at Kilkenny in 1643-4. The silversmiths of Kilkenny were perhaps not the most technically competent in mid 17th century Ireland. The coinage that they produced for the Confederacy of Kilkenny in 1643-4 is the crudest of all the private silver coinages produced during the great rebellion of 1641-50. Like the bishop's cross worn by Bishop Rothe, and the pectoral cross offered here, it was plain in design and form and produced with a technical simplicity. Further evidence of a Kilkenny provenance lies in the fact that the silversmiths of that city were notorious for not marking their silver, in order to avoid the duties payable. Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks (1989 edition) pp 736-7 notes that not a single Kilkenny silversmith is recorded as having registered his mark with the Assay Office during the 17th century, but also notes that the record books of the Dublin Goldsmiths Company (Assay Office) do record a ''pretended goldsmith'' from Kilkenny being prosecuted in 1687 for selling silver objects that were ''worthless'' (i.e. not hallmarked). Lot accompanied by copies of Alice Curtayne's ''The Trial of Oliver Plunkett'' and ''Blessed Oliver Plunkett'', both of which contain portraits of Oliver Plunkett in which he is depicted wearing a pectoral cross similar the one offered here. The portrait of Bishop Rothe referred to above is illustrated in ''Maynooth College Bi-Centenary Art Exhibitions, Ecclesiastical Art of the Penal Era & Art and Transcendence'' published by St Patrick's College, Maynooth, 1995, page 13. A copy of this publication also accompanies the lot. The three silver crucifixes offered here were latterly the property of George Noble, Count Plunkett, who was a direct descendant in the male line of Edward Plunkett, the elder brother of St Oliver Plunkett. He was immensely proud of his connection with St Oliver Plunkett, and produced and essay ''Portraits of Blessed Oliver Plunkett'', which appeared in ''Blessed Oliver Plunkett'' (1937). In addition to these crucifixes, Count Plunkett also owned one of the earliest known portraits of St Oliver Plunkett (illustrated between pp 64 and 65 of ''Blessed Oliver Plunkett'', Dublin, 1937). Count Plunkett was the official representative of the Plunkett family in Rome for the beatification of Oliver Plunkett in 1920. His daughter Fiona was present in Rome when Oliver Plunkett was canonised by Pope Paul VI on 25th October 1975, while Geraldine Plunkett, unable to travel, was represented by her daughter, Blanaid O Brolchain. The various branches of the Plunkett family have a long tradition regarding the preservation of religious objects and holy relics. As far back of 1539, following the dissolution of the monasteries, when church property was seized by Henry VIII, the last Abbot of Kells, Richard Plunkett, passed the monastery's bible to a Dublin relative, Gerald Plunkett, for safekeeping. In 1621 it came into the possession of Archbishop Ussher, and after his death in 1661, it was transferred to Trinity College, Dublin, where the Book of Kells remains to this day. Sources: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; ''Blessed Oliver Plunkett'' (published for the League of Prayer for the Canonisation of Blessed Oliver Plunkett, Dublin 1937); Rev. William Carrigan, ''The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory'', vol 1 (1981); Alice Curtain, ''The Trial of Oliver Plunkett (1953); Father Emanuel Curtis, ''Blessed Oliver Plunkett'' (1963); Desmond Forristal, ''Oliver Plunkett in his Own Words'', (1975); Monsignor John Hanly (editor), ''The Letters of St Oliver Plunkett'' (1979); E. Maguire, ''Old Irish Rosaries and Rosary Crosses'' (The Connoisseur, December 1947, pp 85-91); Tomas O'Fiaich, ''Oliver Plunkett, His Life an Letters'' (1975); Sir John Pollock, ''The Popish Plot'' (1944); Count Plunkett Papers, National Library of Ireland;

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