490 - Franz Xaver Hellner

Franz Xaver Hellner A silver-gilt communion chalice in a leather case Six-lobed foot; the rim with a relief cross motif. The lobes with finely engraved decoration: The Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary and St John, flanked by Saints Francis of Assisi and Charles Borromeo. On the opposite side, the arms of alliance of the families von Papen and von Romberg, between engraved acanthus and a scroll with dedication inscription: “Caroline von Papen Lohe, née von Romberg, to her dear husband Egon von Papen Lohe, Lohe, 25 December 1863”, as well as: “The celebrating priests are requested to remember the von Papen-Lohe family.” Above two hexagonal sections of the stem with a pierced knop, the conical bowl is set within a shallow basket of entwined flowering tendrils. Accompanied by a shallow paten engraved with a Vera Icon and a small spoon with a pierced quatrefoil flower. In the original leather-covered wooden fitted case. Height 21.2 cm, total weight 612 g. Unmarked, presumably Franz Xaver Hellner, Kempen, dated 1863. A Historicist Church Treasury: Liturgical Silver of the Erbsälzer von Papen Family The Erbsälzer formed the influential patriciate of the town of Werl, holding for centuries the hereditary, imperial privilege of being the sole producers of salt and thereby attaining considerable wealth. The Catholic von Papen family ranks among the most prominent of these long-established lineages and, over generations, played a major role in shaping the economic and religious life of the region. In the 19th century, it was above all Franz von Papen and his wife Caroline who repeatedly acted as benefactors to the church, commissioning liturgical vessels from renowned silversmiths. In 1850, Franz Egon von Papen-Köningen, hereditary lord of Lohe and Erbsälzer of Werl, married Paula Carolina Freiin von Romberg zu Buldern. The Baroque ancestral seat of the von Papen family, Haus Lohe in Werl, was extended in 1855 and 1885 by the Cologne cathedral architect Vinzenz Statz in the Neo-Gothic style and furnished with a magnificent chapel. The ecclesiastical silver and liturgical vessels remained on loan and on display at the Städtisches Museum Werl until 2003. Literature Cf. a chalice by Hellner in the Kramer Museum, Kempen, ill. in the cat. Sakrale Goldschmiedekunst des Historismus im Rheinland, Berlin 1992, p. 81, ill. 47. Another one in St. Willibrord in Kellen, ill. in Trier/Weyres (Ed.), Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts im Rheinland, Düsseldorf 1981, ill. 6.