Medieval Limoges Bronze and Champleve Enamel Roundel with Fantastical Creature

CIRCA 13TH CENTURY A.D.

3 1/2 in. (61 grams, 89 mm wide).

Openwork winged beast to the centre, its tails curling beneath the body creating the foliate tendrils on which it perches, broad outer roundel decorated with geometric plants alternating with lozenges, extensive remains of blue champlevé enamelling; engraved and chiselled; four attachment holes.

Provenance

with Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1993, lot 22.
Private collection, Europe.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11903-206496.

Literature

Cf. The Louvre, The Work of Limoges: Limousin enamels from the Middle Ages, Paris, 1995, pp.288-291, for discussion and an almost identical example; cf. The Metropolitan Museum, accession number 17.190.796, for type.

Footnotes

Likely used to adorn a coffret.
Likely before 1227 A.D.

CONDITION

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LOT 0341