Posted on 08/31/2012 9:10:40 AM PDT by Theoria
Two wooden armchairs that were gathering dust in a Vancouver Island church for decades may prove to save the financially-challenged parish after they were discovered to be rare and valuable Qing dynasty treasures.
They'd been there, in a quiet spot along the back wall of the St. Matthias Anglican Church in Victoria, possibly since the parish opened the doors of its new home nearly 50 years ago.
Now the church, which has struggled to survive since a damaging schism over same-sex marriage in 2009, is poised for a potential windfall when the chairs are auctioned next month in New York, where Sotheby's expects the matching set to fetch as much as a quarter of a million dollars at a Sept. 11 sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art.
"It's a remarkable discovery - such a fantastic turn of events," said St. Matthias's rector, Rev. Robert Arril. "It's a godsend - a real boost that will allow us to continue growing as a faith community."
An antique-furniture buff's fortuitous visit to the church two years ago for a Bible study session led to the identification of the chairs as treasures expertly crafted in 17th-century China before making their way somehow - thanks to a long-forgotten donor evidently unaware of their significance - to the Vancouver Island parish.
St. Matthias's armchair miracle has unfolded after extreme financial hard-ship that followed the 2009 exodus of its longtime clerical team and about 95 per cent of its former congregation. Upset over the Anglican Church of Canada's formal embrace of same-sex marriage blessings, it followed a number of other B.C. parishes in joining a conservative offshoot called the Anglican Network in Canada.
Arril arrived soon after and recalled sitting in one of the armchairs at the back of the church as he led a Bible study group, where he met the woman who pointed out that the chairs may be antique treasures.
Her suspicions were soon confirmed by several Vancouver-area experts and a Sotheby's curator of Chinese antiquities.
The "huanghuali yokeback arm-chairs," as they're labelled in the Sotheby's sale catalogue, are made of wood from a rosewood-family tree favoured by ancient furniture-makers for its durability and beautiful texture.
The U.S. auction house described the B.C. chairs as "particularly fine," well-preserved examples of "one of the core elements of the classical Chinese household."
The two-chair set has an estimated value of between $180,000 and $250,000 US, according to Sotheby's.
Arril said an exhaustive search of St. Matthias's archives turned up no references about where the chairs had come from or when exactly they had been given to the church.
It's believed that they may even have belonged to the parish before the present church building was dedicated in the mid-1960s.
'Upset over the Anglican Church of Canada's formal embrace of same-sex marriage blessings, it followed a number of other B.C. parishes in joining a conservative offshoot called the Anglican Network in Canada. '
How soon before the Anglican Church of Canada files suit over it’s ‘share’ of the money?
St. Matthias's armchair miracle has unfolded after extreme financial hard-ship that followed the 2009 exodus of its longtime clerical team and about 95 per cent of its former congregation. Upset over the Anglican Church of Canada's formal embrace of same-sex marriage blessings, it followed a number of other B.C. parishes in joining a conservative offshoot called the Anglican Network in Canada.
I agree, unfortunately I'm still not clear on who left whom. Did the clerical team and 95% of the people leave to join the conservative Anglican Network of Canada, or did St. Matthias join the Anglican Network of Canada and 95% of their folks walked out in solidarity with same sex marriage?
Oops.. My stupid reading of the article. I think that church went with the same sex sin.
They’re nice looking chairs but a quarter mil? I don’t think so. At that price they should be under glass on velvet blankets.
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