Limoges Reliquary Chasse

A Limoges chasse or reliquary in enamelled bronze. The front is decorated with a scene showing the murder of St Martial who was one of the patron saints of Limoges, and the ends with figures of saints standing between roundels. Both the back of the chasse and of the lid also shows enamelled roundel decoration, while the front of the lid shows Christ in Majesty in a circle flanked by angels. At a later date, probably in the fifteenth century, crocketed gables and pierced roof-cresting were added, as were lion feet to support the crocketed sideposts on which the chasse stood. This fine example of thirteenth-century Limoges enamelling was uncovered during excavations for the foundations of a house near Godalming, Surrey, c.1840, and was formerly in the collection of Lord Midleton.