Chalice and paten

Francis W. Cooper's career as a silversmith spanned nearly fifty years, but he produced his most ambitious pieces between 1854 and 1862, during his partnership with Richard Fisher. This exceptional chalice and paten, the cup and dish used to serve wine and bread in the Christian communion service, represent Cooper and Fisher's finest work in the Gothic Revival style. More broadly, these objects reflect efforts by reformers in the American Episcopal Church to capture the perceived simplicity and purity of the medieval Christian church.The New York Ecclesiological Society, formed in 1848 and based on an English counterpart, championed liturgical reforms and hoped to re-create a medieval setting for worship through the careful design of churches and religious objects. Acting on behalf of New York's Episcopal churches, the society engaged Francis Cooper as its exclusive silversmith to produce communion silver in what they termed the "correct" Gothic style, based on interpretations of early medieval art and architecture. Cooper and Fisher made this chalice and paten as part of a larger communion service created for the dedication of New York's Trinity Chapel in 1855. Designed by architect Richard Upjohn, Trinity Chapel was built on West 25th Street near Broadway as a satellite of the older Trinity Church located on Wall Street. The communion set was based on similar designs published by contemporary English designers and reformers.The richly ornamented set is some of the earliest enameled silver hollowware crafted in the United States. The high quality of the work can be attributed to the skills of two specialist craftsmen employed in the Cooper and Fisher shop: Henry P. Horlor, an enamelist, and an engraver known today only by his last name of Segel. These and other artisans in the shop used a wide range of Gothic vocabulary, including pointed arches, quatrefoils, spiral columns, angels, and foliage, consistent with the church's architecture. On the chalice's six-lobed foot, enameled panels depicting biblical scenes alternate with engraved panels illustrating the lives of saints. The paten displays a central enameled panel of Christ in Majesty surrounded by Gothic-style script. Superbly crafted, these objects are among the most ambitious and lavish church silver made in mid-nineteenth-century America.This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.

This exceptional chalice and paten-used to serve consecrated wine and bread in the Christian Communion service-are among the most ambitious and lavish church silver made in mid-nineteenth century America. Closely modeled after medieval English sources, the pieces are decorated with intricate imagery of saints and biblical scenes, rendered in exquisite enamelwork and engraving. They were commissioned by the New York Ecclesiological Society for the 1855 dedication of Trinity Chapel, designed by architect Richard Upjohn.

This exceptional example of Gothic-revival communion silver represents some of the most ambitious work produced for the Episcopal church in the nineteenth century; it is also among the earliest enameled silver hollowware made in this country. Francis W. Cooper, the silversmith who fashioned the chalice and paten, is little known despite his fifty-year career in New York. Aside from church plate bearing his stamp, most of Cooper’s secular production was retailed by larger firms such as Tiffany & Co. without his own touchmark. Cooper was active in New York from 1842 until 1890, but his greatest activity probably occurred between 1854 and 1862, when jeweler Richard Fisher became his financial partner. During that time, Cooper & Fisher became the eighth-largest silver manufacturer in New York City.

Cooper’s success, and that of the Cooper & Fisher partnership, rose along with reforming efforts within the American Episcopal church. Prompted in part by the secularization of industrial society, Anglicans and Episcopalians (their American counterparts) wished to revitalize their congregations by recapturing the innocence and spirituality of the early Christian church. The English Ecclesiological Society of London was prominent among the reformers. Their circle was composed of prominent High Church Anglicans who drew upon elements of historic church architecture and embellishments for a fresh interpretation. Its membership hoped to reestablish a medieval framework for worship through the careful selection of liturgical programs and close supervision of designers.

Designs for communion plate received similar scrutiny. An 1843 article by English architect William Butterfield (1814 – 1900) titled “The Proper Shape of Chalices” appeared in the society’s publication, The Ecclesiologist. Butterfield invited the society to take a leadership role in establishing guidelines for the design and production of church plate. Within four years, Instrumenta Ecclesiastica was published under their guidance; it included 140 designs by Butterfield based upon medieval Gothic prototypes. The publication enabled the society to promote a sanctioned body of designs for churches wishing to order new communion silver. Church plate executed by London silversmith John James Keith (w. 1824 – 1870), under Butterfield’s supervision, received a medal at the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851.

The New York Ecclesiological Society, formed in 1848, was the American counterpart to the English society. It appointed the Rev. John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1820 – 1891) to oversee the fabrication of silver using Butterfield’s designs. Acting on behalf of Episcopal churches wishing to purchase communion silver, Hopkins engaged Francis W. Cooper in 1851 as the New York society’s exclusive silversmith. Hopkins also made arrangements with Henry P. Horlor, an English enameler, who came with excellent credentials. Prior to his arrival in New York, Horlor had worked in London for the English Ecclesiastical Society, and the enamels he produced in New York are perhaps the first made for American hollowware. Engraving was performed by a craftsman named Segel, “an accomplished German artist in metal.” Chalices, patens, a footed paten, alms basins, and flagons were the chief forms of communion silver made under Hopkins’s direction.

It is puzzling how Cooper achieved his exclusive distinction. His religious affiliation is unknown, and it is unclear whether he fashioned any domestic silver for society members. Certainly the choice was made by Hopkins, who exerted broad powers to select a craftsman for this purpose. The result was that Cooper became the only American metalsmith to fashion a quantity of silver hollowware in the Gothic mode. James Cox (w. 1831 – 33) and Zalmon Bostwick (w. 1846 – 1852) of New York were notable craftsmen working in this style, as was Roswell Gleason (1799 – 1887) of Dorchester, Massachusetts, but their production was modest by comparison.

The chalice and paten originally formed part of a larger communion service that was made for Trinity Chapel in New York. As a satellite of Trinity Church, which today stands in Manhattan’s financial district, Trinity Chapel was established at West Twenty-fifth Street, near Broadway, and was intended to serve the church’s membership in what was then considered the town’s northern reaches. Designed by Richard Upjohn (1802 – 1878), the architect of Trinity Church, the chapel was dedicated in 1855. Upjohn’s High Church design was in harmony with Cooper’s paten, which displays broad Gothic lettering and a severe, frontal, Byzantine-style image of Christ. The pre-Reformation-style chalice resembles similar designs published by Augustus Welby North Pugin and updated by Butterfield.

The New York Ecclesiological Society was dissolved in 1855, but American Episcopal churches continued to request silver that followed Butterfield’s designs. Francis W. Cooper filled these orders long after his association with Richard Fisher ended in 1862, fashioning variants of the same designs until about 1875. When the larger firms such as Tiffany & Co. and Gorham opened their own ecclesiastical departments in the late nineteenth century, they continued to draw upon Butterfield’s designs as wrought by Cooper.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.