Reliquary Casket with the Lamb of God and a Personification of the Church
French (Limoges)
About 1185-95
Champlevé enamel on copper
Width 15.4 cm x height 14.5 cm x depth 6.9 cm
Private collection

Three types of enamelling dominated production from the 10th to the 16th centuries.  'Cloisonné' enamel was the most commonly used in the Byzantine world.  In it, thin strips of metal were bent to form the outline of a design and soldered to the surface of the gold ground.  The resulting cells were then filled with enamel.  'Champlevé' was the preferred technique of the Limoges workshops of the 12th and 13th centuries.  Here the design was gouged out of the surface of the metal and the resulting troughs and incisions were filled with enamel.  The third technique, in which enamel was painted onto copper, was perfected by the Limoges workshops around 1470-80.