A rare Romanesque Limoges champlevé enamel and gilt reliquary casket, so-called "chasse", French circa 1200

house-shaped, the front worked with Christ in Majesty, seated and within a mandorla, flanked by the symbols for the four evangelists and two apostles beneath arches, above the Virgin  as Queen of Heaven within a mandorla flanked by four apostles, the end panels with two further apostles beneath arches, all heads worked in relief and applied, the reverse, above and the hinged door worked with a diaper-pattern, enclosing four-petal flowers, comb wanting, the core of oak, applied with collector's label and inscribed in white 1897, minor loss of enamel on one end and around the lock and the rear, left leg-panel

RELATED LITERATURE:
L'Oeuvre de Limoges 1995,  no. 44, pp. 172-173

On the many surviving Limoges chasses of the late 12th and 13th century, the iconography represented frequently allude to the lives of the saints for whose relics the chasse was intended. The present chasse by contrast depicts the Virgin enthroned directly above Christ in Majesty flanked by Saints. It is tempting to suggest that the current chasse would have been originally intended to hold a relic of the Virgin. For a casket of similar palette with the distinctive green band against a blue ground, compare with the chasse in the Louvre illustrated in the 1995 exhibition catalogue (op.cit. no. 44)