The year 1892 saw the first indepth study into Scottish silver when The Reverend Thomas Burns had published his excellent work Old Scottish Communion Plate. But Burns, who had worked tirelessly for over six years to produce this excellent early record, must surely have been very disappointed in the public's reception to his offering, for although the print run was limited to just a mere seventy five large copies and five hundred smaller copies, it appears it took several years before these editions were eventually sold.
It was only in the second half of the nineteenth century that interest really started to unfold in the subject of antique silver, prior to that time silver was seen as a useful and practical method of investing your money, something to have re-worked and re-styled when the fashions of the period dictated, and something to be melted down when the owners personal fortunes were not so good. The catylist for the way antique silver was viewed was probably two-fold, firstly, as we moved into the second half of the century was the public's new found trust in the banking system, and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, was the publication in 1853 of a paper by Octavius Morgan, somewhat longwindedly entitled 'A Chronological List of Ancient Plate; Authorities for the Table of Annual Assay Office Letters from the earliest period.' Morgan had succeeded in analysing the London date letter system, and his reproduction of the date letters enabled owners of silver to realise that some their day to day tableware was, in some cases, hundreds of years old. Improvements on Morgan's work followed in later years by such authors as William Chaffers and William Cripps and their success is perhaps what prompted Thomas Burns to do to Scottish silver what others had done to English silver.
As part of his research, Thomas Burns published this advertisement that appeared in 1888:
In 1889, In an article in 'The Publications of the Scottish Historical Society' the book was described as 'being at the press'.
Finally in 1892 pre-publication notices appeared:
Messrs. R. & R. Clark, of Edinburgh, will issue next month Old Scottish Communion Plate, by the Rev. Thomas Burns. This work has taken the author six years to compile, as it was necessary to consult original MSS., valuable extracts from which are included. It treats of the history of tho Communion cup and its different forms in Scotland, the Communion token, as well as baptismal vessels and the introduction of lavers and basins. There will also be a chapter on Scottish Hall-marks, containing chronological tables of the marks used in different burghs. The book will contain about 800 pages. The small edition will contain 53 page plates, besides upwards of 100 illustrations in the text; the large paper edition will have 33 additional page plates.
Source: The Acadamy - 2nd January 1892
The most comprehensive review that I have found so far was written up in 'The Spectator':
Old Scottish Communion Plate*
It is rightly claimed for this superb book that it is without a rival in Scottish, and almost without a rival in English, literature. In several dioceses on this side of the Tweed, steps have, indeed, been taken to make and publish exact inventories of all the Church plate. In the volume before us, this example has been followed to the extent that it gives an inventory which is believed to be complete of all the silver vessels belonging to the Church of Scotland which were dedicated for sacramental use prior to 1800, with their inscriptions, and where it has been possible, with extracts of Kirk-Session Records bearing on them. Here, then, we have an interesting book of between six and seven hundred pages, which contains a vast amount of antiquarian and ecclesiologieal information well digested, which yet somehow suggests, on the one hand, history of "The Snakes in Iceland " character, and on the other, the melancholy plaint of "In holy things irreverend thou," which was addressed to Scotland by Thomas Aird, who was not the least of her poets, and one of the most attached of her sons. The Rev. Dr. Macgregor, sometime Moderator of the Church of Scotland, who supplies this book with a vigorous and informing preface, has to admit such things as that "among the many blessings which we owe to the Reformation, a reverential regard for Church buildings and Church vessels was not one. By the shameful misappropriation of the revenues provided for their upkeep, the former, many of them gems of architecture, were left to the mercy of our Northern elements, and perished for ever; and Scotland, once fairly rich in ecclesiastical structures, is probably now, in this respect, the poorest of all ancient Christian lands. Through the total loss of all sense of their sanctity, the latter were either destroyed or sold by the local authorities for such purposes as the building of dykes and the paving of causeways." The author of this work has also to make the confession that "there is not now in the possession of the National Church one piece of plate which can be said to date back to the period anterior to the Reformation, with possibly the exception of the small chalice at Forgue." "Within thirty years of the Reformation, the old sacramental vessels had almost entirely disappeared, and an Act of Parliament was required to provide the parishes of Scotland with the vessels for administering the sacraments. These in turn were destined to disappear. The blame of these outrages has hitherto been laid at the door of the Covenanters. But Mr. Burns is able to show that after the struggle between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism came to an end in 1690, a good deal of the Communion plate remained in the hands of the Episcopalian clergy. But also, owing to its being a common custom for the patron or principal landholder of a parish to be the custodian of the plate, "quite a number of Scotch sacramental vessels are still lying in the plate-chests of the Scottish nobility." The hope is thrown out that "careful investigation will now be made, and that, wherever such vessels are found, means may be taken to have them restored to the parishes to whose use they were originally dedicated." Surely this very modest hope will be gratified.
A very large portion of this work is necessarily of local and antiquarian interest, for it is occupied with descriptions of the Communion cups which are now either in actual use or in a state of preservation. These descriptions are painstaking and accurate, and the illustrations which accompany them enhance their value. But naturally they are of supreme interest only in the eyes of such as belong to the parishes that are in possession of the plate thus preserved. Still, the history of some of them is of more than local or antiquarian interest, for it reflects in itself the chequered ecclesiastical history of Scotland. Take as example the adventures of the cups belonging to the parish of Newtyle, which date as far back as 1606 and 1610. The Rev. Alexander McKenzie, who was incumbent of the parish from 1685 to 1695, carried them off in the latter year, on being " deprived " for non-jurancy. After deprivation, he continued to minister in a meeting-house till 1710. Duringthe Rebellion of 1715, he again took possession of the church, and retained it till the forces of the Pretender were driven from Perth in 1716. Meanwhile, he kept the Communion cups. It was after the lapse of some time, and with much difficulty, that they were recovered. Another danger threatened them, however. A new cup, described in the ecclesiastical records of the period as " fashionable and in good case," was presented, or "doted," to the parish. Thereupon it was suggested that the two old vessels should be melted down, and made into " one agreeable to the other." What must be regarded as wiser counsels prevailed. The Kirk-Session resolved, in 1771, to sell the new cup, and actually received over £50 for it. These beautiful cups have, therefore, been preserved in their original form by the particular church to which they were gifted, and, as Mr. Burns says, they " reveal to the Church to-day what has been lost to many a parish through the craze for renewal of cups which prevailed in the eighteenth century." This work brings out very clearly the changes which have taken place in the shape and artistic finish of Communion cups and "tokens" during the history of the Presbyterian Church. These changes have, in the case of the cups, not always been for the better and handsomer.
Burns has, in his "Holy Fair," immortalised the social excesses and spiritual extravagances which in his time marked the celebration of the Communion. The poet is confirmed by his learned namesake who writes this book. The social excesses, at all events, were largely due to the fact that the celebration of the Communion lasted for a portentous length of time, and that it was partaken of by crowds. As an example, Mr. Burns, in his chapter on "Old Communion Customs in Scotland," mentions that in the parish of Dull, Perthshire, on June 19th, 1791, twenty-nine tables were served, and the aggregate number of communicants present was 2,361. "It was customary to calculate on the full moon for Communions; and judging from the length of the table addresses, it can be conceived that the last table was served with the moon perhaps high in the heavens. It is told of the late Rev. Dr. Black, Minister of the Barony, Glasgow, that on a Communion Sunday it was quite customary for him to return home aided by the light of a small hand-lamp. One effect of these large sacramental gatherings was the protracted nature of the day's proceedings, and the necessity of having provisions, both meat and drink, for the people." Monster Communion celebrations were not the order of the day all over Scotland, however. It was stated in 1795 by the Minister of Shapinshay, in Orkney, that the Lord's Supper had "not been administered for fifty years, and only once or twice in a hundred years," and this neglect he attributed to "the extreme ignorance of the people, the want of money for purchasing Communion elements, no Communion cups, no tables, or table-cloths, and to the church being both small and irregular, and very inconvenient for the celebx-ation of the Communion."
* Old Scottish Communion Plate. By the Rev. Thomas Burns, F.R.S.E., F.S.A. Scot. Minister of Lady Glenorchy's Parish, Edinburgh. With a Preface by the Right Rev. James Macgregor, D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly; and Chronological Tables of Scottish Hall-Marks, prepared by Alexander J. S. Brook, F.S.A. Scot. Edinburgh: R. and R. Clark. 1891.
Source: The Spectator - 4th June 1892
But, in 1895 and 1896 I have found advertisements showing that the book was still available for purchase:
1895
1896
Trev.
To be continued.
