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Description: | An incomplete Medieval cast copper alloy Limoges style enamelled reliquary, cross or casket mount. The mount is anthropomorphic in form and depicts a head and robed body, possibly one that is kneeling as the proportion is not accurate for the whole length of a person. The head is moulded in the round with raised upper band, possibly a tonsure depicted by an obliquely angled head, followed by flat forehead, two sub-rectangular indentation for eyes, but not the type of indentation that would have held any settings which is common in this type of mount. Moulded linear nose and feint mouth is also visible. While the head protrudes outwards from the surface of the object, the rest of the body is thin and is concave on the reverse. One lateral edge of the body is heavily abraded and has some of the edge missing. The outer face of the body is decorated with radiating rectangular lines which appear to represent arms with clasped hands and draped garments, thereby creating sub-triangular cells which originally were probably filled with enamel, however no traces are visible now. Centrally positioned at towards either vertical end of the body is a circular rivet hole, which would have fixed this decorative element to the object; both rivets are now missing. The object is heavily abraded and the surface has a dark brown, matte surface which is in poor condition. The object measures 47.52mm long, 16.75mm wide, 6.88mm thick and weighs 6.5grams.The object would have originally sat flush with the surface of the larger object; this style of enamelled mount, probably for a casket or a cross, was typically produced in the Limoges area in central France during the late 12th and 13th centuries. The technique, known as 'champlevé' enamelling, involved grinding out a metal base to receive glass powder that was then fired. A variety of different items were produced from the workshops at Limoges, both commerical and ecclesiastical including altar crosses, relic caskets, candlesticks and marriage coffers (Mills, N. 1999. Medieval Artefacts. Greenlight Publishing. Witham.106).A similar enamelled figure was found in Salisbury (Saunders, P.(ed) 2001. Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue Part 3. Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum #2, fig 8) and paralleled by another in Winchester (Cherry, J. 2001. Enamels in Saunders, P. (ed) 2001. pp39-4242). Cherry notes that enamelled figures with two holes for attachment to a reliquary, box or cross are not uncommon finds and are likely to represent saints or apostles. Several similar examples have been recorded on the PAS database; for example, cf.: SWYOR-551697, NMS-058DD6, NMS-021F11, DUR-11FEB4, BH-A05BD8, LEIC-A029A1, NMGW-D86575, LIN-9833A0, SUSS-1BDE96, LVPL-D02C10, SUSS-52D708, HAMP-774550 and IOW-B137B5, LIN-5555C4, LIN-983876, LIN-3943D1 & NCL-AA5735.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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