Reliquary shrine, wooden core, engraved, champlevé,... Lot 10

Reliquary shrine, wooden core, engraved, champlevé, enameled and gilded copper, five applique figures, cabochons of white, colored and rock crystal glass, blue, light blue, green, white and red enamels. Plates on both sides decorated with large asters in diamond-shaped reserves, squared spandrels, the reverse with keyhole and hinges; gables with saint figures on squared background; roof slopes adorned with "dolls" and cabochons on a background of dotted lines and rosettes; crest pierced with keyhole motifs. Limoges, mid-13th century H. 15.6 cm - W. 15.9 cm - D. 5.5 cm Two labels on the bottom, one in brown ink 19 and the other 68 or 89. (a few accidents, missing parts and restorations, including the modern core). Provenance : - J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York before 1917. - Alexander Gallery, London, purchased May 19, 2009. - Private collection, Limoges. Exhibition: - Manchester 1973, Saint Anselm's College. This type of shrine, known as "aux poupées", belongs to the late production of Limoges, which seems to have begun towards the end of the first half of the 13th century. Very similar examples are listed, more specifically of this decoration combining asters, squares and dolls. Adolphe de Rochemonteix published a shrine of this type in his 1902 work on Romanesque churches in Haute-Auvergne, which belonged to Abbé Aimé, curé of Bredons (fig.). Other examples include that of Saint Pantaléon in the church of Laplau in Corrèze, as well as a number of shawls, only with dolls and gables decorated with saints on squared backgrounds, as in Albi Cathedral and the treasury of Saint-Aubin Cathedral in Namur. Works consulted: - A. de Chalvet de Rochemonteix, Les Églises Romanes de la Haute Auvergne, Paris, 1902, p 490, fig. 321. - Limousin enamels of the Middle Ages, Corrèze - Creuse- Haute-Auvergne, ed. L'Inventaire, Limoges, 1995, p 38-39. - J. Toussaint (ed.), Emaux de Limoges XIIe - XIXe siècle, Namur, 1996, p 50, fig.8, cat.5, p 57.