LIMOGES, 13TH CENTURY

Details

A gilt-copper, glass and enamel reliquary
Limoges, 13th century

The front of the reliquary with applied enamelled figures alternating with pairs of glass pastes; the reverse with hinged opening and later lock.
Losses to enamel; elements replaced.
6 in. (15.2 cm.) high

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
London, British Museum, Medieval Enamels - Masterpieces from the Keir Collection, October 1981 - January 1982, pp. 20-21, no. 17, pls. 15-16, fig. 2.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, L'Oeuvre de Limoges - Émaux Limousins du Moyen Age, 23 October 1995 - 22 January 1996, pp. 327-328, no. 113 (entry by Elizabth Taburet-Delahaye).

Lot Essay

An excellent discussion of this type of reliquary châsse is to be found in the entry for the Châsse de Saint Hippolyte in the Louvre in the catalogue of the recent Limoges exhibition there (Paris, loc. cit.). It belongs to the category of châsses 'à figures de poupées', so called because of their doll-like appliques. A châsse in the Keir Collection (London, loc. cit.), combines these doll figures with a vermiculé background, which suggests a date around the end of the 12th century, but most examples appear to be rather later.

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