Huge Ethiopian Coptic Processional Cross at South Coast Antiques & Gallery, Ocean Springs, MS

Today  we are featuring an absolutely gorgeous Ethiopian Coptic processional cross. The Copts were a very early Christian group that still survive to this very day.

It’s a huge processional cross, over 25 inches tall and designed to set atop a six-foot plus staff.  This is the biggest Coptic processional cross I or my business partner have ever seen outside of a museum.  It is presently sitting on a base rather than on a staff and is an impressive work of devotional art.

Huge Coptic Processional Cross

Detail of Huge Coptic Processional Cross

 The triple cross iconography recalls the Trinity, but the most interesting feature is the Holy Grail depiction, which is figured as a cauldron.  The Copts today, insist that they are the inheritors of the Holy Grail and that it is hidden in one of their temples.  The say that the Grail is in the shape of what we today would call a cauldron, as opposed to the more Western chalice shape that we are all familiar with from literature and movies.  When carried in procession, a white sort of scarf is looped through the grail and drapes down dramatically.   The cross is depicted as springing up from the Holy Grail.  This particular piece probably dates to around the 1920s and not much earlier.  It is superbly cast in white bronze, although some early processional crosses were fashioned in silver.  I’ve always liked the exuberant pierce work in both Coptic and Celtic items. 

 This stunning collectors work of art is currantly available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery, Ocean Springs, MS. 

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