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IV. The Sanctuary Ring of Durham Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Jane Geddes
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Abstract

The sanctuary ring on the north door of Durham Cathedral is one of the most striking achievements of Romanesque bronze casting. In 1977 concern for its safety was expressed by the cathedral authorities and the decision was eventually taken to remove the familiar animal head and replace it with a copy. There was no evidence on the door that the ring had ever been removed previously and so, for the first time, it was possible to give the ring a thorough examination in laboratory conditions. Preliminary metallurgical tests were carried out in the Victoria and Albert Museum while the British Museum was responsible for making the cast (see Appendix). The original is now displayed in the Durham Cathedral treasury while a copy hangs on the door.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 107 , 1982 , pp. 125 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1982

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References

Notes

1 I would like to thank Mr. Giles of the British Museum laboratory for his views on this.

2 F. A. Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, II (1895), pp. 412–3. 240 oz. of gold and stones were removed from the treasury and 364¼ oz. silver and 1578½ oz. of precious metal removed from St. Cuthbert's shrine.

3 The Rites of Durham, ed. Fowler, J. T. (Surtees Soc. cvii, 1902), p. 14 (hereafter called Rites).Google Scholar

4 This has been removed by the British Museum and replaced by a bronze weld.

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7 R. W. Billings, The Cathedral Church at Durham(1843), p. 21. Billings says the north door was ornamented in a similar style to the south door, but he must have used the word ‘similar’ rather loosely. The surviving stumps on the north door have a flat surface, quite unlike the profiled work of the south door. The north door was illustrated in 1727 with wooden ribs and no ironwork by Browne Willis, A Survey of the Cathedrals (1727), p. 224.

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9 Browne Willis, loc. cit.; J. Carter, drawing in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries, pi. iv (1795) (this was made after the demolition but based on a ‘painted north view in the bishop's palace’); Gentleman's Magazine, lxxii (1802), 228.Google Scholar

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11 Symeon, p. 71.

12 Symeon, p. 75.

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34 Mende, op. cit., illustrates all these examples. In addition, Le Puy, Palacio Nacional de Montjuich, Barcelona. Exhibition, L'Art Roman (1961), no. 433.

35 M. N. Delaine, ‘Les pentures de portes medievales dans le centre de la France’, Revue d'Auvergne, lxxxviii, no. 2 (1974), 126, 153, 129.

36 Delaine, op. cit., pp. 147, 173, 141.

37 Reginald of Durham, ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc. i, (1835), p. 106.

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45 Level with the triforium, over 10 m. high, and as wide as choir.

46 Rites, pp. 10–11, 201–3.