January 2009

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The Goldsmiths’ Company deserves praise for this serious and beautiful exhibition, since such an ambitious proposal is likely to have been rejected by most English museums as too rarefied or too academic, and its presentation considered discomfortingly theatrical. The objects are set against figured damasks; the ambience, enhanced through music, smells and lighting effects, as well as appropriate architectural details, is refreshing in its elaboration, recalling some of Roy Strong’s early shows at the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A. This joy in texture, colour and effects is also reflected in the work of today’s artist-silversmiths, who take pleasure in reacting against featureless modernism. The design, in which the hall’s architectural character is largely neutralised, is highly effective. It aims at evoking the distinctive visual and emotional atmosphere of ceremonial settings for worship, as well as reinforcing the sense of travelling along a historical path. Recently, academics have reassessed the significance of the Anglican church, its turbulent history and its centrality to communal life; here, those aspects are expressed through the objects, some of which are strikingly large and elaborate, such as Bishop Cosen’s Restoration service from Durham, made by royal goldsmiths, or Dean Fell’s service for Christ Church, Oxford. Also remarkable is the range of Continental and domestic silver, mostly given before 1800, although antiquarian vicars may be the source of two German stoneware pots.