The Fetternear Dalmatics
The Fetternear Dalmatics
Current location: Blairs Museum : The Museum of Scotland’s Catholic Heritage
Museum No’s. T8042 & T8043: White silk dalmatics x 2
Description: The main body of the dalmatic is made of brocade in a multi coloured weave of floral design. The orphrey has a ground of laid silver with silk floss designs of grapes, leaves and flowers. The embroidery is raised and padded. It is not known whether the silver was laid before the embroidery or later. The silver-work on the orphreys have been likened to South-German work and Davidson and King argue that they were constructed in Vienna. There are slight differences between the orphreys on the chasuble and on the dalmatics. Also there are no embroidered flowers on the dalmatics, whose background is of woven floral silk brocade, possibly 18th century which may indicate they were made up after the chasuble. The silver orphreys may have been transported to Scotland before being mounted and since hidden Catholic services normally only required the chasuble for fear of discovery it is likely dalmatics were not required until later in the 18th century.
Provenance: The dalmatics are associated with the Leslie family, who owned Fetternear House, Kenmay (Aberdeenshire). Count James Leslie (1621-94) of the Holy Roman Empire sent the vestments home to Scotland after the siege of Vienna in 1683, and a Leslie family tree of 1690 mentions vestments made of captured Turkish armoury. Walter Leslie (1606-67) converted or re-converted the family to Catholicism in the 1630s, and the Leslies became prominent Scottish Catholic nobility, fostering the survival of the ‘old faith’ on their estates. Little of what James Leslie sent home to Scotland has survived after two Jacobite risings and a fire which destroyed Fetternear House in the 1920s.
Fortunately, the vestments were bequeathed to the Diocese of Aberdeen in 1921 by the Leslie family and thus avoided destruction.
Material: Satin ground and silk embroidery
Dimensions: 114cm x 112cm
Maker / Artist / Origin: Turkish goldwork, European
Date: 17th or early 18th century
Sources: Davidson, P., & King, P. (2016). The Fetternear vestments at the Blairs Museum. British Catholic History, 33(2), 259-277. doi:10.1017/bch.2016.27