Tabernacle (for holding the Sacrament)

Augustus W. N. Pugin

Brass, amethysts, crystals and stone

14'6" (above the base)

c.1849

Southwark Cathedral, London

Formerly at St Augustine's, Ramsgate

Detail (richly ornamented tabernacle door)

This striking and unusual piece, designed to stand on an altar and house the Sacrament, would not have been familiar to Pugin's Church of England contemporaries, or even to most Roman Catholics of the time. There are various mysteries surrounding it. For example, there is no entry for its brass door in the Hardman Metalwork Daybook of 1849-54. [continued below]

Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2010.

With many thanks to Catriona Blaker, former editor of True Principles (see below), for her generous help.

Photographs reproduced on the web by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Southwark.

This tabernacle was shown at the Great Exhibition, where it was very prominently displayed in the Medieval Court, but the date of its (and Pugin's other exhibits') return to him in Ramsgate is unknown. There is, however, some record of it: a letter showing that George Myers was prepared to waive its cost when Pugin's estate was being wound up. It also features not only in pictures of the Medieval Court, but also, beautifully framed by a rood screen designed by Pugin as well, in an interior view of St Augustine's Church, Ramsgate, in around 1960. According to Alexandra Wedgwood, the Chancel of St Augustine's was re-ordered in 1969-70. After that the tabernacle was kept in storage and then lent to an exhibition of Victorian Church Art, and some two years later (in 1974) it was installed in the Harvard Chapel in Southwark Cathedral (4).

Pugin had been particularly damning about the late 1830s innovations at Southwark (wooden staircases etc — see Worley 32), and would doubtless have been surprised to learn that this richly wrought item was fated to end up there. But those questionable alterations have long since been swept away. Moreover, the tabernacle is still used for the purpose intended, and can be admired by the many visitors who come to see the Harvard Chapel (John Harvard, who endowed Harvard University, is commemorated here because he was born in Southwark and baptised at the cathedral). Lady Wedgwood concludes by celebrating the tabernacle's survival, though she does point out that it "has probably received more gilding than Pugin would have given it, and a modern gilt statuette of Christ has recently been placed under the Benediction throne" (5).

References

Wedgwood, Alexandra. "Pugin's Tabernacle in Southwark Cathedral," in True Principles: The Voice of the Pugin Society. Vol. 2, No. 4 (Summer 2002): 3-5.

Worley, George. Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral. London: George Bell & Sons, 1905. Available here on Project Gutenberg.

---

Victorian
Web

Decorative
Arts

A. W. N.
Pugin

Last modified 14 August 2010