Chasse (casket)
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A chasse, châsse or box reliquary is a shape commonly used in medieval metalwork for reliquaries and other containers. To the modern eye the form resembles a house, though a tomb or church was more th
Limoges enamel chasse, c. 1200, with the story of the Three Magi.
Limoges example of the first style with the figures enamelled, and gems.
Detail showing a "vermiculated" background
Chasse or reliquary with Thomas Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral shown below, and his burial in the cathedral above.
Vitreous enamel
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Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C. The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smoo
Chasse (casket)
…these new possibilities. By the 12th century, the Romanesque chasse had become popular as a relatively cheap form for reliquaries, especially for the enamelled caskets made in Limoges and Spain, which were exported all over Europe. Limoges was on one of the main pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela, which…
Gothic châsse; 1185–1200; champlevé enamel over copper gilded; height: 17.7 cm (7.0 in), width: 17.4 cm (6.9 in), depth: 10.1 cm (4.0 in)
Chinese dish with scalloped rim, from the Ming dynasty; early 15th century; cloisonné enamel; height: 2.5 cm, diameter: 15.2 cm
Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, 2nd-century Roman Britain
Detail of painted Limoges enamel dish, mid-16th century, attributed to Jean de Court