“The Adare Manor,” Replica of the Shrine of St. Manchan  A...

Hammer

€12,000

“The Adare Manor,” Replica of the Shrine of St. Manchan 

An extremely fine Replica composed of wood, plaster of Paris, gilding and mixed media, commissioned around 1850 by Sir William Wilde and presented by him to the 3rd Earl of Dunraven, this life-size replica of the Shrine of St. Manchan conveys well the magnificence of one of the greatest examples of twelfth-century metalwork to have survived in Ireland. Constructed of wood, Plaster of Paris with gilding and other media, the replica was displayed at Adare Manor for over a century and was included in the sale of the contents of Adare in 1982. The original medieval shrine is still preserved at the parish church at Boher in Co. Offaly, close to Lemanaghan, where, in the seventh century, St. Manchan founded his monastery.

In the 1874 Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, the Rev. James Graves gave a detailed account of the Shrine of St. Manchan. Dating from around 1130, it is the largest surviving medieval reliquary in Ireland, and with its combination of Hiberno-Romanesque and late Viking decoration, can be compared to the Cross of Cong. It is likely that both were commissioned by Turlough O'Connor, High King of Ireland, and made at the monastery at Clonmacnoise. In the Annals of the Four Masters, there is an entry for the year 1166: "The shrine of St. Manchan, of Maethail, was covered by Ruaidhri Ua Conchobhair, and an embroidering of gold was carried over it by him, in as good a style as a relic was ever covered in Ireland." Ruaidhri, along with his father, was buried at Clonmacnoise. Making such an elaborate reliquary took time, and the fifty or so gilded figures would have been added in the years after it was first made. According to the Annals, Manchan died in 664 AD, and so it was almost five hundred years before his bones were placed in the reliquary. 

By the early nineteenth century, when first described scientifically by George Petrie, the reliquary, having suffered the vicissitudes of time, was in the care of the Mooney family, of the Doon in Co. Offaly. Petrie described it in his notebook at the time. "In form this venerable relic resembles that usually belonging to the ancient Ciborium [altar canopy], and generally represented at the top of the ancient stone crosses. The material is yew but covered over with brass work and with inlaying of ivory, and enamelling. On each of its two sides are crosses, formed in the centre and extremities by five large cups or paterae; beneath these were placed a range of figures in bas-relief formed of brass also, and separate from each other. These figures have been lost from one side altogether, but eleven still remain on the other. They are rude in design but beautiful in execution, like all the other parts of the work, and their costume, which is the same in all, affords one of the most valuable existing examples of the dress of those early times. They have all the kilt, and cloak fastened on the breast with a large brooch. The head covered with a cap or baired, and the feet with brogues. . . " Petrie was a close friend of the Earl of Dunraven, as was Margaret Stokes, who, In her Early Christian Art in Ireland describes the reliquary as being twenty-four inches long, fifteen inches wide and resembling the roof of a house or chapel. Today, it is largely as detailed by Petrie and Stokes, still retaining its four bronze feet, and with large rings at the corners. In medieval times, on the saint's feast day of January 24th, the reliquary was carried in procession, held aloft by poles passed through these rings. Restored and conserved, the Shrine of St. Manchan is now displayed in the church at Boher, Ballycumber, not far from Clonmacnoise. Nearby are the ruins of an ancient church, and a holy well, both named after the saint. Manchan was revered not only for his piety, but also for his poetry, as in these verses attributed to him: 

 

I wish, O Son of the Living God, O Ancient Eternal King,
For a hidden hut in the wilderness, a simple secluded thing.
The all-blithe lithe little lark in his place, chanting his lightsome lay;
The calm, clear pool of the Spirit's grace, washing my sins away.
A wide, wild woodland on every side, its shades the nursery
Of glad-voiced songsters, who at day-dawn chant their sweet psalm for me.
A southern aspect to catch the sun, a brook across the floor,
A choice land, rich with gracious gifts, down-stretching from my door.

Few men and wise, these I would prize, men of content and power,
To raise Thy praise throughout the days at each canonical hour.
Four times three, three times four, fitted for every need,
To the King of the Sun praying each one, this were a grace, indeed.
Twelve in the church to chant the hours, kneeling there twain and twain ;
And I before, near the chancel door, listening their low refrain.
A pleasant church with an Altar-cloth, where Christ sits at the board,
And a shining candle shedding its ray on the white words of the Lord.
Brief meals between, when prayer is done, our modest needs supply ;
No greed in our share of the simple fare, no boasting or ribaldry.
This is the husbandry I choose, laborious, simple, free,
The fragrant leek about my door, the hen and the humble bee.
Rough raiment of tweed, enough for my need, this will my King allow;
And I to be sitting praying to God under every leafy bough.

When first exhibited, in the Dublin Great Exhibition in 1853, the medieval Shrine of St. Manchan attracted enormous interest and several life-size replicas were made around this time. One of these, based on casts taken by Dr. Alexander Carte, curator of the RDS museum, was (according to Graves), in the collection of Dr. Lentaigne of Dublin. A wealthy physician, John Francis O'Neill Lentaigne lived at Tallaght demesne, where he had a private museum of antiquities. His replica, now in the National Museum, gives an idea of how the reliquary originally looked, with its elaborate Romanesque and Viking decoration fully intact. A similar imaginative version is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The present replica, commissioned by Wilde, is a more faithful copy of the actual shrine. Wilde also commissioned a second replica, which he presented to the Royal Irish Academy.

A scholarly book detailing the Shrine of St. Manchan, with text by Dr. Griffin Murray FSA and photographs by Kevin O'Dwyer, was published in October 2022.

Provenance:  The Earls of Dunraven, Adare Manor, purchased by the present Vendor at the dispersal sale in 1982.

Dr. Peter Murray, 2022