Silver Elegance: An Eighteenth Century Italian Thurible in White Silver

Silver, like gold, does not have a singular expression. Rather, silver comes in a range of different shades.  Some silvers are very cool and greyish in their hue while others have other underlying secondary colours such as pink/red. However one of those beautiful shades, in my estimation, is a kind of silver known as white silver. White silver is very light and airy in its appearance; one might even say that it is a 'warm' tone of silver that seems to invite a sense of it somehow being 'soft.'

It was the fact that this type of silver was used in the production of this particular eighteenth century thurible and boat that made them jump out to me, more so that anything particular to the rest of its design. It is certainly quite nice even in that regard of course, but generally speaking, most thuribles have a fairly limited range of design possibilities since we're usually dealing with an object of a very particular shape that is in part limited by the object's practical function. As such, it can take quite a bit to make one thurible stand out over and above another, but in this case the choice of silver is was did it from me.

This particular boat and thurible were made in Lucca sometime in the second half of thew 1700's by the silversmith, Ottavio Nuti (which we know because it bears his mark). 

The boat itself, which holds the granules of unburnt incense, takes its name from its ship like shape and this ship analogy is taken to another level here by even making it appear as though it is the deck of a ship, complete with the rail and deck one would find typically at the back of an old mast ship. 

The spoon is relatively simple in its design (though it does have a lovely twisted handle). 

Artistry and good craftsmanship involve close attention to the smallest of details, and as in all the liturgical arts, the particular materials chosen, with their particular qualities and subtleties, can make the difference between garish liturgical art and nobly beautiful liturgical art; it can also make the difference between a piece that looks like everything else, or a piece stands out from the crowd.

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