MEDIEVAL MOUNT

1100

A medieval mount, made from gilded copper alloy and enamelled in Limoges style, probably from a casket or crucifix. It is a convex half-round standing male figure of a saint with a fully-round nimbed head with cast features, black glass pellets in the eyes, and a concentric wavy line within a blue enamelled halo. The folds of his robes are represented by longitudinal cells containing blue enamel. There is a trapezoidal panel on the figure's breast, possibly a book, above possible conjoined hands at the end of oblique lines interrupting folds of the robes and representing the position of the arms. The trapezoidal panel has a circular perforation which is probably a rivet hole. The semi-circular base of the robe is chamfered and pierced by a second rivet hole. It measures 25 x 65mm and is in a corroded condition.This mount may be compared with the drawing of a similar, although incomplete, figure (head missing) from Hevingham (Norfolk Historic Environment Record number 7633) and a more complete example from Swaffham (NHER 28567), the digital photograph of another complete but distorted figure from Wiggenhall St Germans (NHER 22102), and Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350 (1996), no. 49, showing a figure of Christ with the folds of his robes enamelled in a similar manner. This example dates from the late 12th-early 13th century.