AN EXTREMELY RARE ANGLO-NORMAN CENSER PINNACLE COMES TO AUCTION
AN EXTREMELY RARE ANGLO-NORMAN CENSER PINNACLE COMES TO AUCTION
AT DORE & REES, UK, ON 24 JUNE
Dore & Rees Auction Salerooms in Frome, UK, is pleased to offer an extremely rare Anglo-Norman parcel gilt censer pinnacle. Dating to circa 1150, this modestly formed piece, standing 8.5cm high, is creating quite a stir in early silver collecting circles due to its rarity. This example is unique among a small group of Anglo-Norman metalware held at the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Cast by ‘lost wax’ technique, the four sided detachable cover for an ecclesiastical censer pierced ‘open work’ ornamentation. The square base has four circular lugs securing the pinnacle to the body of a larger censer base (not present). Birds, mythical beasts and foliage form the decoration beneath the triangular gables, at the junctions of the gables are serpent or animal form heads. The ‘roof’, comprised of four lozenge form sections, is decorated with winged beasts surmounted by a tripartite finial. The censer cover comes with an annotated piece of paper, which reads: 'Dug up in the field below the Old Oak by Labourer's Wife, 1860'
The overall form of decoration appears to resemble the style of the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture both in the zoomorphic depictions and the representation of foliage, most closely the carved foliage and animal figures on the south door of the Kilpeck Church of St. Mary and St. David.
The censer pinnacle stylistically fits into a small group of similar cast bronze examples held at the British Museum. The closest comparison being the damaged pinnacle found in the River Thames near London Bridge (illustrated in 'The History of English Plate' by C.J. Jackson pp 87-90). A similar censer cover can be found in the British Museum collection (Item no. 1960,0701.1)
“In English Silver anything made before the Civil War is pretty rare. It got melted down. The place where it tended to survive the longest was silver made for churches, and this little piece of silver falls into that group. It's the pinnacle of a church censer used for burning incense, as part of the mass.
This censer finial is the oldest piece of English silver I've ever been close to. It was made before Magna Carta and before Robin Hood, in about 1150, soon after the Norman invasion. It's not, as a form, unique. There are two or three others made of bronze in the British Museum, but this one is silver gilt which makes it extremely rare.”
Duncan Campbell, Silver Specialist
This censer pinnacle is offered as lot 81 in the forthcoming Fine Silver auction taking place at Dore & Rees on 24 June 2026.
FINE SILVER
WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE
2:00PM
VIEWING
Selected highlights will be on view at Concours des Legends, Wilton House (Riding School), Salisbury
Friday 19 June 10:00am to 8:00pm
Saturday 20 June from 10:00am
On view at Dore & Rees Auction Salerooms
Monday 22 June 10:00am to 4:00pm
Tuesday 23 June 10:00am to 4:00pm
Wednesday 24 June 10:00am to 1:00pm