Beschreibung:

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 16