Portable Altars at Auction; Guest Post by Andrew Marlborough

This week, I present another guest article by my friend, Andrew Marlborough, who worked in the art gallery business for 10 years before joining seminary in England. The hope here is that more people will start to look at auction houses so that such pieces might remain in Catholic hands.

Andrew writes: It was a great joy to discover the superb portable altars crafted by Rick Murphey at St Joseph’s Apprentice, which Dr Peter Kwasniewski has already written about.

The inspiration for these most likely came from examples used by First and Second World War Catholic and Anglican military chaplains. These were often cleverly designed to fold into a small flush-sided rectangular shape and be as strong and lightweight as possible, with compartments for candles, chalice, paten, linens etc. Several surviving examples have appeared at auction in the UK over the past year, at good value.

The first was sold by John Goodwin auctioneers in Ledbury in October 2020. It was of plain form but made of fine oak and velvet-lined. The interior contained a small silver chalice and paten, along with a host-box. An accompanying letter of provenance affirmed that it had been used by a chaplain in WWI. It realized just £190 (excluding buyer’s premium). 

On 7th October this year, Swan Fine Art in Tetbury offered a very fine example, also in oak, and with a beautifully carved reredos. The interior was velvet-lined to accommodate many accessories, including a silver chalice and paten, spoon, candlesticks, host-boxes, cruets, and linens. The case was made by Mowbray & Co., of Oxford and London, a well-known firm for small ecclesiastical work, whilst the silver was by Frederick Wray of London and hallmarked for 1910. It sold for £500 (excluding buyer’s premium).

A third portable altar was sold on 27th October by Plymouth Auctions. This example was later in date and more compact, though also made of oak, and contained in a leather carrying case. It included candlesticks, Crucifix, pyxes, paten, and other items, and realised just £150 (excluding buyer’s premium).

Andrew Marlborough is a 6th-year seminarian for Plymouth Diocese in the UK, studying at Allen Hall in London. Before entering seminary he worked for 10 years in the auction and art gallery business.

World War I Army Mass Kit

Many readers will be familiar with the site Sancrucensis, where they will find the learned lucubrations and edifying epigrams of Pater Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., not to mention a fair share of uplifting photographs of the yearly round of monastic life at the thriving Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

Recently Pater Edmund shared with me the exciting news that he had received the gift of a portable Mass kit that once belonged to a World War I chaplain, which an antique store in Oberösterreich had put up for sale.[1] It features a built-in altar stone and altar cards that fold out, and in the compartments inside there are not only chalice and linens, etc., but even four chasubles in different colors (!). The chalice seems to have been made in Fulda, while the Missal is from Regensburg. The whole set-up is typical of kits in the World War I era.

Pater Edmund asked that I share these pictures at NLM. I must say, it is both a pleasure and a challenge to do so. A pleasure, for obvious reasons; how could a more complete and better portable kit ever be devised? A challenge, because this war-time worst, this compact gear meant to be carried through mud and bullets, is more complete and more appropriate than what one might find in many peace-time sacristies today!

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Portable Altars & Roadside Shrines

Recently David Clayton recommended that Catholics think seriously about ways to decorate with holy imagery buildings, gardens, businesses, and other places where non-Catholics might see them and either be prompted to a conversation or simply take that image into their souls and start living with it, a seed of a possible future response to grace. When I posted his article on Facebook, the carpenter who makes what must certainly be the world's most beautiful portable wooden altars, Rick Murphey, responded with a photo of a crucifix he had built in the style of European roadside shrines, and said that people could order such shrines from him.

Mr. Murphey had come to my attention in another way, when a priest a few weeks ago shared with me photos of his new portable altar — the work for which St. Joseph's Apprentice is best known. This altar was described to me as one-of-a-kind, made of cherry wood instead of hemlock but dyed with a red mahogany. It weighs 20 lbs.

Mr. Murphey wrote to me: "I am approaching altar #300. The good St. Joseph seems to send me a steady supply of orders, so I am always working about 2-3 months out."

Here is his contact information if you are interested in either a portable altar or a roadside shrine:
Rick Murphey
St. Joseph's Apprentice
17310 W. Left Fork Rd.
Hauser, ID 83854
(208) 773-1733
Email is preferred contact: stjosephsapprentice@gmail.com