In 1970 a concrete replica of the St John’s Cross arrived in Iona sitting incongruously on the deck of a puffer delivering the island’s annual supply of coal. What is the story behind this intriguing replica? How does it relate to the world’s first ringed ‘Celtic cross’, an artistic and technical masterpiece, which has been at the heart of the Iona experience since the eighth century? What does it tell us about the authenticity and value of replicas?

In this fascinating book, Foster and Jones draw on extensive interdisciplinary research to reveal the composite biography of the St John’s Cross, its concrete replica, and its many other scale copies. They show that replicas can acquire rich forms of authenticity and value, informed by social relations, craft practices, creativity, place and materiality. Thus, the book challenges traditional precepts that seek authenticity in qualities intrinsic to original historic objects. Replicas are shown to be important objects in their own right, with their own creative, human histories - biographies that people can connect with. The story of the St John’s Cross celebrates how replicas can ‘work’ for us if we let them, particularly if clues are available about their makers’ passion, creativity and craft.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Image credits
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• The concrete and non-concrete Sally Foster
• I Crafting lives
  • 1 Life as a replica Sally Foster and San Jones
    • Replication and authenticity
    • Analogue replicas still matter
    • The St John’s Cross and its copies matter
    • The lives and voices of replicas
    • Capturing lives – objects, texts, images and people
    • Piecing it all together
  • 2 Loving Iona Sally Foster and Sîan Jones
    • Island of crosses
    • Multiple communities
    • A ‘thick’ place
  • 3 ‘Priceless monuments’ Sally Foster
    • Early antiquarian interest
    • New stewards, new horizons
    • ‘History versus Mystery; Science and Art versus Faith’
    • Island voices
    • Dead or alive?
• II Creating and cultivating the cross
  • 4 Formation and reformation Sally Foster
    • Salvation, wounds and resurrection
    • Fragmentation
    • Antiquarian rebirth, earliest copies
    • Silent witness
    • The Fallen Cross
  • 5 Birth of the concrete replica ‘I can’t think of anything more worthwhile doing' Sally Foster
    • A slow conception
    • Fertile possibilities
    • ‘Miraculous success’: an ‘authentic prototype’ for an ‘authentic replica’
    • Erecting the replica in situ
    • For the love of Iona
    • Material matters, first impressions
    • Celebrating the ‘virtually impossible’
    • MacLeod and the St John’s Cross
    • New life, new values
  • 6 From out of the shadows? Sally Foster
    • Transformer
    • Reunited
    • Place in the world
    • The Iona brand
  • 7 Glorious revelation: contemporary significance, values and authenticity Sally Foster and Sîan Jones
    • ‘Loaded objects’: meanings and relationships
    • Place and space
    • Material evidence of ‘pastness’
    • ‘Glorious revelation’
• III Celebration in concrete, celebration of concrete
  • 8 New life, new thinking Sally Foster and Sîan Jones
    • Rethinking authenticity and value
    • Heritage implications
    • Creating knowledge and understanding
    • Understanding social value and authenticity
    • Securing for the future
    • Engaging and experiencing
    • New lives, new stories
• Appendices Sally Foster
  • 1 Surviving physical remains of the St John’s Cross, its 1:1 replicas and their production
  • 2 Archival sources
  • 3 Breakdown of ethnographic sources
• Bibliography