Liturgical Curiosities: A Gilt Leather Chasuble, Maniple and Stole

Over the years I've seen many curious things and in the realm of sacred vestments one of the more interesting things I've come across are various chasubles made of lace.  Now when you think about it historically that's not so very unusual. You use what you have and, in some regions, lace-making was what they were particularly known for (and whats more, lace was merely another form of textile ornamentation). Well, recently I came across something rather more curious that I hadn't come across before: a chasuble, stole and maniple made of embossed, polychrome, gilt leather.  

Now, we have featured gilt leather antependia before (including a contemporary workshop, Lutson, who still make them) but leather vestments are a new one to me. I came across this particular specimen in the Victoria and Albert Museum's Conservation Journal. The museum dates the chasuble to the second half of the seventeenth century believing the chasuble to have been made in Italy or Germany. They describe the chasuble as follows:

The vegetable-tanned leather, presumed bovine [leather], has been embossed from the flesh side (verso), with a design of orphery, fruits and flowers. Pattern has been stamped onto the grain side (recto) with a variety of small motifs. The leather is decorated with silver leaf, blue paint, and yellow varnish –giving a gold appearance. A blue linen lining conceals internal paper and linen linings.

The rest of the journal's article is about the specific task of restoring the chasuble, and if that sort of technical detail interests you, I'd invite you to visit their site, but for our purposes here, I mainly want to showcase the fact of the chasuble and its design, which can be seen here:

We even still have the stole and maniple from the set:

Certainly the general design is Italianate in its style, showcasing a central column orphrey on the back of the chasuble and a Tau cross on the front. The rest of the design is made up of floriated gold and silver designs.  A blue colouring has been used as the main "background" colour -- though do recall that this shade of blue would have historically been considered acceptable for use as either black or purple/violet liturgically speaking. 

A closer look at the shoulder detail the V&A is highlighting here for restoration shows the leather more clearly.

Evidently, while the use of leather for antependia is feasible -- since, after all, an antependium lays flat and remains static -- the use of leather for vestments proper is quite another matter entirely given that the leather would be rather cumbersome given that it is rather heavy and stiff.  In this regard it is certainly a rather strange choice and it's likely no surprise that such usages were not particularly common. 

Image Source: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O353324/vestment-unknown/

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