Iconography and Origin: a Twelfth-Century Limoges Enamel Plaque from Bayham Abbey in the British Museum

Iconography and Origin: A Twelfth-Century Limoges Enamel Plaque FROM BAYHAM ABBEY in the British Museum

eleanor wilson

But if a faithful soul should see the representations of the Lord’s crucifixion expressed in the strokes of an artist, it is itself pierced …¹

In 1984, Mr Champneys of Tunbridge Wells brought an enamel plaque to the British Museum (reliquary plaque, copper alloy and enamel, Limoges, Bayham Abbey(?), British Museum, c.1170-1190, 144 x 284mm).² The plaque’s wooden mounts bore the script, ‘Purchased of Mrs Barr of Hook Green. May 1874. F.H’. F.H is said to indicate the initials of the vendor’s ancestor, who lived in Lamberhurst. Hook Green and Lamberhurst are very close to Bayham Abbey, which is where, according to family lore, the plaque was found. The house at Bayham was founded when the monastic houses of Otham, Sussex, and Brockley, Kent, united to form one abbey on the border between the two counties.³ The abbey is thought to have had an entrance facing each county, but now only the ruins of the Kent gate survive.

The plaque had therefore moved within a very limited geographic region, from local owner to local owner, giving greater credence to the assertion that it was retrieved from Bayham Abbey at some point before the nineteenth century. The back of the wooden mount also bears the text, ‘Said by Mr. Franks of the British Museum to be a Limoges Enamel of about the Date A.D. 1200’. Representing a transitionary moment in the production of vermiculé Limoges enamels, and an object of fascinating provenance, iconography and fine craftsmanship, the plaque was acquired by the British Museum in 1985 and has remained largely unstudied ever since.⁴

Theophilus describes in his treatise the technique of champlevé enamelling: incising copper alloy plate, melting glass tesserae, pouring molten pigment into sea shells, and flooding incised grooves with layers of colour with a goose feather.⁵ In the reliquary plaque from Bayham Abbey, made in Limoges between 1170 and 1190 and now owned by the British Museum, we are presented with an image of the Lord’s crucifixion executed in this technique Theophilus describes. This object occupies a lacuna in scholarship. A single catalogue entry has attempted to decipher the questions raised by this object’s appearance and provenance; however, no satisfactory assessment has been undertaken to explain its unprecedented iconography, its questioned origin in Limoges, nor offer a suggested function at Bayham Abbey.⁶ In this paper the author argues for the plaque’s iconographic relation to the Limoges workshops, and offers a possible explanation for its journey to, and suitability for, a crusader patron and the Premonstratensian Order at Bayham Abbey.

The plaque is formed of a large copper alloy plate from the side of a reliquary châsse. It is completed in champlevé enamel, in the typical palette of Limoges. Vermiculé engraving is incised into the background, which dates this object to the second half of the twelfth century when the ‘group’ of vermiculé Limoges enamels was made (Fig. 1).⁷ Large quantities of the enamel and gilding have been lost, suggesting the plaque spent a period of time in the ground before being retrieved. In the centre, the image of the crucifixion surrounded by the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist conforms to traditional iconography, with roundels above containing personifications of sol and luna referring to the eclipse at the crucifixion (Fig. 2). The dying Christ appears to bear his own weight and is still imbued with life, although his head tilts to one side. On either side of this scene are pairs of soldiers in pseudo-architectural niches, facing Christ (Figs 3-6). They are depicted below an engraved representation of an eastern roofline evoking the architecture of the Holy Land, or the Heavenly Jerusalem, and are surrounded by ornamental columns with patterned shafts and capitals. They wear the contemporary twelfth-century garb of a short tunic, tights and long pointed shoes, with loose ‘Phrygian’-like caps. Each figure on the plaque has had a large rivet driven through its face, either leaving a hole or the remains of the rivet, flattened to the surface level. The plaque is surrounded by an azure blue enamelled border, containing an unusual pattern of squat cruciform motifs (Fig. 7). The plaque has been detached from a larger châsse, and formed one of the long rectangular fronts, typical of enamel caskets of this date.⁸ Around thirty nail holes can be seen around the edges of the plaque, indicative of its original fixings to a châsse, and also to its later display on a wooden mount.

Early Enamels: Between Limoges and England

The attribution of medieval enamel work to Limoges has been debated in modern scholarship. Opus lemovicense has been identified in treasuries indicating that, to the medieval eye, objects such as the Bayham Plaque were a trademark of Limousin artisans.⁹ The Abbey of Saint-Martial in Limoges has often been associated with enamel production.¹⁰ The workshops of enamel workers seem to have been clustered within the remit of Saint Martial, inside the enclosed wall surrounding the Abbey, the Church of St Michel-des-Lions and the Viscount’s Palace.¹¹ The cloister of the Abbey is suspected to have housed lay enamel workshops.¹² The abbey’s fame as a centre of manuscript production would have provided many subjects and iconographic models for the craftsmen. The city was popular with pilgrims and crusaders during the twelfth century, and was home to many ecclesiastical establishments, thus providing a ready supply of clientele for the enamel workers of the city.¹³

A group of twelfth-century Limoges enamels, described as the ‘vermiculé works’, is seen to constitute the early stage of the Limoges workshop success (see Appendix I). The common features of these works are their restrained palette, religious subject matter, similar small scale and portability, their Limoges origin, and their vermiculé ground with ornate ‘worm-like’ patterns. It is within this group that the author suggests the Bayham plaque belongs, and any origin other than Limoges should be discounted.

Although the Bayham plaque conforms in terms of date, palette, subject, scale, function and use of vermiculé, the presence of the rivets in the heads of the figures indicates that this plaque was made on the transitionary cusp between styles in the Limousin workshops. It is likely that the rivets were put there to affix appliqué heads. This possibility is supported by the fact that the gilding on the faces of the sol and luna figures, and the soldier on the far right, has survived, indicating that at least these figures had always had coverings over them, and that the others had perhaps lost their covers earlier during the plaque’s time in the ground. Appliqué heads were ‘attached with a round-sectioned post that projects from their reverses … inserted through a hole in the plaque and hammered over’, congruent with the British Museum plaque.¹⁴ However, around the edge of the holes and rivets there are the remains of the delicately engraved heads on the copper alloy, consistent with the surviving examples of the vermiculé group. The Bayham plaque shows the mixing of the early practice of the vermiculé group with incised faces, and the later practice of affixing appliqué heads, and thus occupies a position in the evolutionary moment of the technique in the Limoges workshops at the end of the twelfth century.

Limoges Enamel and England

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Limoges was under English control.¹⁵ It was positioned on a major route for trade and pilgrimage, meaning that the transportation of the goods produced in the St-Martial workshops was easy.¹⁶ The movements of material via these trade routes, and pilgrims, thus makes it entirely possible that the Limoges plaque could have been at Bayham.

There are a number of instances where Limoges enamels have been unearthed, close to where the Bayham plaque is purported to have been found. In 1851, a copper enamel plate of a similar description to the Bayham plaque was retrieved from Rottingdean (Sussex).¹⁷ It was an element of a larger piece cast aside during the Reformation, and depicted the Crucifixion. At the church of Shipley in Sussex, formerly a Preceptory of the Knights Templar, there was a Limoges enamelled reliquary showing the Crucifixion with saints and angels, most likely donated by the Templars.¹⁸ Key evidence of the presence of material from Limoges in Kent are a number of fragmentary objects reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. An example of a copper alloy appliqué head, made in Limoges between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was found on the Lydden and Temple Ewell Downs. The form, size and shape of the head is typical of the type of appliqué fixtures that would have been attached with rivets to the incised faces on reliquary châsse, such as that the Bayham Abbey plaque once belonged to (Fig. 8).¹⁹ These finds show that, although it cannot be conclusively proven that the Bayham plaque was recovered from Bayham Abbey, evidence of Limoges enamels was being retrieved from nearby sites at around the same time. As this type of material was widespread during the medieval period, the plaque’s movement from Limoges to Bayham, is all the more likely.

Although it is most likely goods such as the Bayham plaque were imported from Limoges, it should be acknowledged that it is possible that they were made in English enamel workshops. It is thought these English workshops are often overlooked in the attribution of medieval enamels in favour of a Limoges origin, and the handful of examples that have been given English origins are cited in attempts to contradict the apparently automatic attribution to Limoges.²⁰ As there is a lack of documentation pertaining to the creation, purchase, patronage or shipment of Limoges work, it is difficult to conclusively dismiss English workshop involvement.²¹ It has been suggested that, as there was no copper mining in the region of Limoges, the thought that Limoges was the European centre of enamel works is incorrect.²² However, copper could easily have been imported from other sources, therefore this is not an adequate argument to rule out Limoges as the centre of medieval enamel production.²³ It will now be proposed that the Bayham plaque did not come from an English workshop but was made in Limoges and imported to England via a different means, supported by evidence from the artistic milieu of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Limoges.

Iconographic Study: A Case for a Limoges Origin

The iconography of the Bayham plaque is unprecedented in the corpus of Limoges enamellists. The central form of the crucifixion, the Virgin, John the Evangelist, and the sol and luna personifications, with the dying Christ on the cross, marked with the Christogram IHS//XPS, is a typical iconographic trope of Romanesque art. However, the incorporation of four indistinct unhaloed soldiers is entirely absent as an iconographic type in Crucifixion imagery. They cannot be viewed as the Roman centurions, for there is no evidence of their identity as Longinus and Stephaton, nor as the soldiers bartering for Christ’s robe. Similarly, the cruciform border on an azure background is unprecedented in the corpus of Limoges enamel. Therefore, this problematic iconography must instead be examined in the relation to earlier precedent and other contemporary media.

In the only short study made by Marie-Madeleine Gauthier of the Bayham plaque, the inclusion of the crucified Christ, flanked by unidentifiable soldiers has been suggested by Mme. Gauthier to have been derived from Byzantine models of Imperial portraiture.²⁴ The Missorium of Theodosios (silver, 74cm diameter, Real Academia de la Historia Madrid, fourth-century), displays the emperor flanked by four armed figures, with large shields and spears. However, direct comparison with such material appears unhelpful, as these soldiers do not look like those of the Bayham plaque, and this is not an image of Christ enthroned, so an Imperial portraiture mode of depiction has no place in the moment of crucifixion.

The Scriptorium of Limoges

The most promising comparisons for the iconography of the Bayham plaque are three manuscripts from the scriptoria of Limoges, closely linked to the school of a single illuminator producing work from the Abbey of Saint-Martial, Limoges. The scriptorium of a monastery was often situated in the cloister with its better light conditions.²⁵ As previously stated, it is believed that enamel workshops were operating within the walls around Saint-Martial, and perhaps even within its cloister.²⁶ Thus, due to the proximity of the scriptorium and the enamel workshops in Limoges, comparison between manuscripts and the Bayham plaque can be used to firmly situate Limoges as its place of production.

The Second Bible of Saint-Martial (Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris,

MS. Latin 8)

The Second Bible of Saint-Martial is famed for its richly coloured ornate initials, typical of the Aquitaine style.²⁷ Walter Cahn attributes the bible to the scriptorium of Saint-Martial, created at the beginning of the twelfth century.²⁸ In a number of initials, a relationship with the Bayham plaque’s iconography can be drawn. A general point can be made regarding the idiosyncratic motif of the border surrounding the initials. Each initial is bordered by a frame of block colour, which is ornamented with a string of rivet-like dots (Fig. 9). The shape, number and dispersal of these dots recalls the structural nail holes in the Bayham plaque, and enamels more generally, suggesting a relationship between the scriptorium of Saint-Martial and an enamel workshop, perhaps on site. This relationship indicates that if this motif can be shared by the two media, other iconographic motifs could also be shared through contact between enamellers and illuminators. The relationship between the bible and the Bayham plaque is also seen in the composition of the initials. Like the plaque, figures are situated beneath architectural forms reminiscent of the heavenly Jerusalem, with arcades that recall the enamelled patterns of the columns. In the microarchitecture, we see analogous exoticized domes, with similar brickwork interspersing the buildings, and turrets reminiscent of the Holy Sepulchre. Thus, we can see mutual iconographic motifs in the bible and the Bayham Abbey plaque, suggesting a possible relationship.

The Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne (Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris,

MS Latin 9438)

This relationship is supported by the similar affiliation between the Bayham plaque, and another Limoges manuscript, the Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne, made for the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne in Limoges. Although it is not known in which Limoges scriptorium the artist of this manuscript resided, the brightly coloured intricate ornamentation resembles the Second Bible of Saint-Martial, and the illuminators of both were operating in the same milieu.29 There are two key features of the sacramentary that bear a resemblance to the Bayham plaque. Firstly, as in the Second Bible of Saint-Martial, the compositional technique of placing figures within a micro-architectural space, with arcades, columns and domed structures above that recall the architecture of the Holy Land, is very similar to that of the Bayham plaque. For example, the Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet, appear within compositional restraints of microarchitecture that recalls that of the upper register of the Bayham plaque (Fig. 10). Folio 59r, depicting the Crucifixion, adopts the same typical composition of the central Crucifixion in the Bayham plaque. The Saint-Etienne crucifixion also includes the peculiarity of the inclusion of soldiers other than Longinus and Stephaton, as in the Bayham plaque (Fig. 11). In the lower register of the folio appear two military figures, with covered heads, standing to attention and holding shields. Like the soldiers of the Bayham plaque, these soldiers do not belong in this scriptural moment: they are not Longinus or Stephaton, nor are they the centurions bartering with Christ’s robe. They appear of a greater similarity, perhaps, to the moment of Pilate’s guard at the tomb. Regardless of the soldier’s identity in either the Bayham plaque or the Saint-Etienne Sacramentary, there is a convincing iconographic link between the micro-architecture, and the inclusion of unexplained soldiers, perhaps evoking Pilate’s guard. This strongly suggests a relationship between the Sacramentary and the Bayham plaque thus supporting the attribution of the plaque to the Limoges enamel workshops.

The Mazarine Bible (Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, MS. 1 and 2)

The Bible of the Bibliothèque Mazarine was created in the twelfth century. Yolanta Zaluska places the Mazarine Bible in the orbit of the painter of the Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne.³⁰ Thus a web of connection between the three manuscripts cited here is indicative of an artistic milieu in Limoges where ideas, iconographies and stylistic qualities were exchanged. This bible bears the clearest visual comparison with the Bayham plaque. The figures of the soldiers on the Bayham plaque should be compared with similarly garbed figures in the Mazarine Bible (Fig. 12). In folio 112r, the soldier fights a fictive beast, clutching a shield and spear, dressed in a similar manner to the soldiers of the plaque. The shoes, Phrygian cap, tights and tunic are very similar to those of the soldiers in the plaque. The structure of the figure, the delineation of the drapery, and the suggestion of movement by placing the figure’s apparent weight on the back foot, all suggest a relationship between the artist of the Bible and that of the Bayham plaque. Comparable to the Second Bible of Saint-Martial, and the Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne, the Mazarine Bible includes micro-architectural motifs that recall those of the Bayham plaque. The arcade ornamentation of the calendar on folio 155v is closely related to that of the plaque (Fig. 13). The diagonal and wave-like patterns in a limited palette, although not identical to the plaque, are very similar. The key link between the artist of the Mazarine Bible and that of the Bayham plaque is the idiosyncratic use of the cruciform decorative motif. The Bayham plaque’s cruciform border is unprecedented in any Limoges enamel. However, the Mazarine Bible is adorned with a huge number of decorative cruciform motifs, identical to those of the plaque. We see a seemingly experimental application of these crosses using gold leaf throughout the Mazarine Bible, suggesting the artist desired to play with the motif as an ornamental pattern (Fig. 14).

Through the comparisons with the manuscripts above, which have emerged from an epicentre of influence of a monk at the scriptorium of Saint-Martial, the iconographic trail from the Bayham plaque leads back to a Limoges atelier, within the Chateau of Saint-Martial. It is therefore entirely possible that an artist, whether the illuminator of the Mazarine Bible himself or someone working in the sphere of the creators of these three manuscripts from twelfth-century Limoges, was responsible for the programming of the Bayham plaque, or created it himself.

A Proposed Provenance: Bayham Abbey and the Premonstratensians

As the plaque’s production can now be securely attributed to Limoges, the question is now: if the Bayham provenance is correct, why and how did it arrive there? While Limoges enamels were widely traded and gifted throughout Europe at this date, there is little documentary evidence to help us trace them. Here, a case will be made through contextual analysis, for the situation of the plaque at Bayham Abbey in the thirteenth century, and a possible course of its journey and why it was suited for this monastic foundation.

Between 1199 and 1208, the Premonstratensian monks of Otham, Sussex, and Brockley, Kent, migrated to Bayham, where the Crusader, Robert de Turnham, was establishing an Abbey to be dedicated to the Virgin.³¹ Robert was in Poitou on King Richard’s business between 1201 and 1205, meaning that the Abbey was most likely founded before this, in 1200.³² It is possible that Robert bought the châsse that the Bayham plaque was attached to when in Aquitaine at the beginning of the century, to give to his new abbey, perhaps containing a relic acquired during his time in the Holy Land.³³ Unfortunately, with no relic list surviving at Bayham, unlike larger establishments, it must be argued on speculation that the Bayham plaque belonged to a True Cross reliquary.³⁴ Although it is typical that acquisition of Passion relics was recorded by institutions, it should be noted that there must have been numerous relics of the True Cross that we have no account for, suggested by such surviving artefacts as the British Museum pendant reliquary of the True Cross (c.1200, Scotland, British Museum).³⁵

The militarised iconography of the Bayham plaque, with prominent knights in contemporary garb, could have an appropriateness for a Crusader patron of the châsse. The iconographic programme creates a focus on the guarding of Christ, and the programmer appears to intentionally muddy our understanding as to whether they are Roman centurions or twelfth-century crusaders through their garb and unclear identity within the narrative of the Passion. Thus, a châsse including the Bayham plaque would be fitting for the gift of a twelfth-century knight on return from the Holy Land with a relic of the True Cross. The microarchitectural detail in the top register of the Bayham plaque makes this association stronger, through its evocation of Jerusalem.³⁶ This is further evoked by the presence of embryonic heraldry on the shields of the four soldiers on the plaque. While this heraldry is not paralleled in other Limoges enamels of this date, a group of Limoges-enamelled Crusader sword pommels offers an iconographic equivalent. Discovered in the Holy Land, the visual similarity between the embryonic heraldry on the sword pommels, and those of the soldier’s shields on the plaque is compelling (Fig. 15).³⁷ If these are compared to the shields of the soldiers of the plaque, the similarity in motif is clear. To a twelfth- or thirteenth-century viewer, more familiar with the everyday sight of Crusaders and their associated visual symbols, this connotation between the knights of the plaque and the men of Christendom in the Holy Land would be all the stronger.

Although no physical evidence of Robert’s remains have been found at Bayham, and there is no archival source for the location of his burial, it should be assumed he was interred there as it was usual for the founder’s final resting place to be in their Abbey.³⁸ Evidence comes down to us that his relatives, and later patrons of Bayham, the Sackville family, had tombs at the Abbey. This could suggest that this was a familial burial place, that perhaps began when Robert de Turnham’s remains were interred at Bayham, and his chantry masses held there.³⁹ The Premonstratensians were renowned in England for ‘the frequency with which the founder [patron] arranged for his [chantry] masses to be said by canon-priests’.⁴⁰ In Charter VIII of Bayham Abbey, Robert de Turnham declares that his lands, possessions and wealth are left to the abbey in perpetuity for the spiritual welfare of himself, and his descendants.⁴¹ Similarly, in Charter IX, he states that ‘things and possessions and tenements’ are to be held by the Abbey beyond his death, suggesting that alongside land and money, he also donated material objects, offering the tantalising thought that the plaque may have been one of such ‘things’ (see Appendix II). Bayham is thought to have had four chapels on the east side of its original thirteenth-century transepts, and it is likely that one of these was a burial chapel for Robert de Turnham, as he died in 1211 (Fig. 16).⁴² The east end was lengthened at the end of the thirteenth century and, unusually for a small abbey, the original transepts were kept rather than being destroyed along with the east end. As the quire and east end were being rebuilt within living memory of the founder’s death, it may be that these original transepts were preserved as they contained Robert’s burial chapel. If indeed, it could be proved through excavation or undiscovered archival evidence that Robert de Turnham was buried at Bayham, as would be usual for the founder of an institution, the reliquary châsse from which the Bayham plaque derives may well have been gifted by Robert for the altar of his chapel, or interred along with his body.

Bayham Abbey, as a Premonstratensian House, had a particular devotion to the True Cross, and had strong associations with the Crusades. The order adopted the lay devotional text of the Office of the Holy Cross, alongside the Premonstratensian Office of the Blessed Virgin, making a True Cross reliquary entirely appropriate.⁴³ From its foundation, the Order was deeply connected to the Crusading cause, being one of the first orders to have a Monastery in the Holy Land, which is perhaps why they appealed to the benefaction of infamous crusader Robert de Turnham.⁴⁴ The Premonstratensians modelled themselves on the church of the Holy Sepulchre, seen in the similarities between the ordinal of the Premonstratensians and the ordinal of the Holy Sepulchre from 1111.⁴⁵ The Premonstratensian liturgy for during Holy Week mimicked that carried out at the Holy Sepulchre.⁴⁶ The celebration of the True Cross was key in the celebrations of Easter; the priest would kiss both the altar and the cross on the Missal.⁴⁷ In Premonstratensian twelfth-century practice, the Mass of the Holy Cross was used as the weekly Friday conventual Mass.⁴⁸ Therefore, in light of the established devotion to the Holy Cross that typified the Premonstratensians at Bayham and more broadly, the Bayham plaque would have been an ideal ornament for a châsse at that Abbey. Without knowledge of the dedication of the altars in the original first transept chapels, it is difficult to suggest the use of this reliquary. However, just as a case has been made for Robert’s burial chapel, this châsse could equally have been intended for a chapel dedicated to the True Cross, to be used by the Premonstratensians during their Friday conventual mass and Easter week.

Conclusions

It is has been suggested that the structural shape of reliquary châsses was intended to symbolise a tomb.⁴⁹ Within the châsse, to which the plaque was attached, was likely a Passion relic brought back by Robert de Turnham from the Holy Land, transforming this casket into a pseudo-Holy Sepulchre. Thus, if the Bayham plaque was indeed associated with the tomb of crusader Robert de Turnham in the Abbey’s first transepts, the martial iconography relating to the guarding of Christ is singularly pertinent to the medieval audience. The soldiers depicted on the plaque stand guard over Christ’s dying form, just as the tomb effigy of Robert de Turnham, would stand guard over the reliquary châsse-cum-tomb, perpetually protecting the Passion relic within.

The Abbey of Bayham was dissolved in May of 1525.⁵⁰ No record or inventory survives of the contents of the Abbey before the dissolution. Perhaps the reliquary châsse was forgotten by Wolsey’s men when they collected the Abbey’s wealth, or perhaps it had already been interred by this date. More study must be undertaken in relation to Bayham’s documentary records and archaeological findings. Without the confirmed knowledge of the Abbey’s chapel’s dedications, and Robert de Turnham’s final resting place, evidence for the origin and import of the Bayham plaque can only be circumstantial. And many questions remain unanswered. What happened to the appliqué heads? What was the iconography of the rest of the châsse? What was the relic that it held? How did a plaque with iconography so closely linked to a scriptorium in Limoges, potentially end up in the earth beneath a monastic ruin on the county line between Kent and Sussex? What is now known, however, is that the Bayham plaque can now be closely linked to the twelfth-century manuscript production in the city of Limoges and that a conjectural case can be made that this plaque belonged to a châsse that found its way to England from Limoges.

Appendix I

The Group of Early Limoges Vermiculé Enamels as described

by Mme. Marie-Madeleine Gauthier

Appendix II

Translations from the transcriptions of two charters relating to Robert de Turnham, from Cotton Otho A. ii transcribed in William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. 6, Part 2 (London: Bohn, 1846), pp. 910-915.

[Translated with the assistance of Malcolm Wilson, January 2020]

Number IX, Alia Carta Præfati Roberti de Turneham

Robert of Turnham, salvation in the Lord to all the sons of the Holy Mother Church, to whom this present charter is sent. Know all of you that I, in view of divine love, have conceded and confirmed this present charter to the abbot and canons of Otteham, who, because of their immense and unbearable hardship in Otteham, transferred the abbatial seat of Otteham to the abbey of Bayham, which is called Beaulieu. Wherefore I want the aforesaid abbot and canons of Otteham and Beaulieu, and their successors, to have and to hold all things and possessions and tenements, which I and others have contributed to the same church of Bayham, well and in peace, freely and peacefully, without any impediment or vexation. And I have confirmed with this charter and my seal, my concession in all things, in all the above mentioned, firmly and stably, in perpetuity. Witnessed these, etc.

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endnotes

¹ Theophilus, Trans. J. G. Hawthorne and C. S. Smith, On Divers Arts: The Foremost Medieval treatise on Painting, Glassmaking and Metalwork (New York: Dover Publications Inc. 1979), pp. 79-80.

² The following information was provided by the unpublished British Museum object file, detailing the acquisition information compiled by Neil Stratford, and correspondence with Mme. Marie-Madeleine Gauthier.

³ H.M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951), p. 112.

⁴ Gauthier and François, Emaux Méridionaux, p. 179.

⁵ Theophilus, On Divers Arts, pp. 126-7.

⁶ Marie-Madeleine Gauthier and Geneviève François, Emaux Méridionaux: Catalogue International de L’Œuvre de Limoges, par, Tome I, L’Époque Romane (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1987), p. 179.

⁷ Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, ‘Une plaque de châsse émaillée à fond vermiculé à Oxford La Crucifixion et quatre soldats’, Bulletin de la Sociétè Archéologique & Historique du Limousin, Vol. 88 (1961), p. 103.

8 Gauthier and François, Emaux Méridionaux, p. 179.

⁹ Barbara Drake Boehm, ‘Opus lemovicense: A Taste for and Diffusion of Limoges Enamels’, in John P. O’Neill, ed., Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350, Exhibition Catalogue, Musée du Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art (Paris and USA 1995-1996), p. 34.

¹⁰ Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Saint-Martial de Limoges: Ambition Politique et Production Culturelle (Xe-XIIIe siècles) (Limoges: Presses Universitaires de Limoges et du Limousin, 2006), p. 47.

¹¹ Andrault-Schmitt, Saint-Martial de Limoges, p. 53.

¹² Bernadette Barrière, ‘The Limousin and Limoges in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’ in O’Neill, ed., Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350, p. 25.

¹³ Ibid., p. 26.

¹⁴ O’Neill, ed., Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350, p. 53.

¹⁵ Barrière, ‘The Limousin and Limoges in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, pp. 26-27.

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 24.

¹⁷ Reverend Arthur Hussey, ‘Notice of An Ancient Engraved Copper Formerly Enamelled, Lately Discovered at Rottingdean,’ Sussex Archaeological Collections, Vol. 5 (1852), 105.

¹⁸ Edmund Cartwright, The Parochial Topography of the Rape of Bramber: Vol II, Part II (London: J.B. Nichols & Son, 1830), p. 302.

¹⁹ Portable Antiquities Scheme Find ID - KENT-A0BC4A.

²⁰ For further information read: Tancred Borenius ed., ‘English Medieval Enamels,’ in University College London Monographs of English Medieval Art (London: Pantheon, 1926); Marie-Madeleine Gauthier and Geneviève François, trans. and ed. Neil Stratford, Medieval Enamels: Masterpieces from the Keir Collection (London: British Museum Press, 1981); Neil Stratford, Catalogue of Medieval Enamels in the British Museum: Northern Romanesque Enamel, Volume Two (London: British Museum Press, 1993); ‘An Early Record at Dijon of the Export of Becket’s Relics’, in H.E.J. Cowdrey, Popes, Monks and Crusaders (London: The Hambledon Press, 2003).

²¹ Barrière, ‘The Limousin and Limoges in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, p. 22.

²² Ibid., p. 26.

²³ Isabelle Biron, Pete Dandridge and Mark T. Wypyski, ‘Techniques and Material in Limoges Enamels’, in O’Neill, ed., Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350, p. 49.

²⁴ Gauthier and François, Emaux Méridionaux, p. 179.

²⁵ Bernadette Barrière, Splendeurs de St-Martial de Limoges au temps d’Adémar de Chabannes (Limoges: Musée municipal de l’évêché, 1995), p. 95.

²⁶ Barrière, ‘The Limousin and Limoges in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, p. 25.

²⁷ Charles Reginald Dodwe, The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800-1200: Vol. 27 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 223.

²⁸ Walter Cahn, Romanesque Manuscripts: The Twelfth Century (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), p. 47.

²⁹ Dodwe, The Pictorial Arts, p. 224.

³⁰ Yolanta Zaluska, 1979, ‘La Bible Limousine de la Bibliotheque Mazarine a Paris’, Le Limousin Études Archéologique, Archéologiques et Histoire de l’Art Paris, pp.70-71.

³¹ Colvin, The White Canons, p. 112.

³² Ibid., p. 112.

³³ John Munns, ‘The Vision of the Cross and the Crusades in England before 1189’, in The Crusades and Visual Culture (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), p. 58.

³⁴ John Munns, 2016, Cross and Culture in Anglo-Norman England: Theology, Imagery, Devotion (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press), p. 247.

³⁵ Munns, ‘The Vision of the Cross’, p. 62.

³⁶ Richard Etlin, ed., 2015, History of Religious Architecture of the World, (New York and CUP), p. 1.

³⁷ Donald J. La Rocca, 2011, ‘Sword and Dagger Pommels Associated with the Crusades: Part I,’ Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 46:1, p. 134.

³⁸ Mark Elvins, Bayham Abbey 1182-1982: Its Founder and his Family (Hove: Chichester Diocesan Fund and Board of Finance, 1981), p. 3.

³⁹ Ibid., p. 3.

⁴⁰ Colvin, The White Canons, p. 272

⁴¹ William Dugdale, 1846, Monasticon Anglicanum Volume 6 Part 2, Charter VIII (London: Bohn).

⁴² Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, 2001, Sussex (London: Penguin), p. 410.

⁴³ Joseph A. Gribbin, 2001, The Premonstratensians in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press), p. 116.

⁴⁴ François Petit, tans. Victor Szczurek, 1947, Spirituality of the Premonstratensians: The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Kentucky: Cistercian Publications), p. 90.

⁴⁵ Petit, tans. Szczurek, Spirituality of the Premonstratensians, p. 99.

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 99.

47 Ibid., p. 100.

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 100.

⁴⁹ Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, trans. J.A. Underwood, 1983, Highways of the Faith: Relics and Reliquaries from Jerusalem to Compostela (New York: The Wellfleet Press, p. 12.

⁵⁰ Deirdre O’Sullivan, 2006, ‘The ‘Little Dissolution’ of the 1520s’, Post-Medieval Archaeology, Vol. 40:2, p. 233.

Fig. 1 Reliquary Plaque, c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 2 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 3 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 4 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 5 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 6 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 7 Reliquary Plaque [detail], c.1170-1190, copper alloy and enamel, Bayham Abbey (?), Limoges, Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

Fig. 8 A Fragment of copper-alloy Medieval Limoges Style Mount, c.1100-1400, Find ID KENT-A0BC4A, Photo: Kent County Council. 

Fig. 9 MS Latin 8, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Twelfth Century, f.4v,

Photo: ©Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Fig. 10 The Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne, MS Latin 9438, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Twelfth Century, f.46v, Photo: ©Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Fig. 11 The Sacramentary of Saint-Etienne, MS Latin 9438, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Twelfth Century, f.59r, Photo: ©Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Fig. 12 The Mazarine Bible, MS 1, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Twelfth Century, f.112r, Photo: Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux, CC by 3.0.

Fig. 13 The Mazarine Bible, MS 1, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Twelfth Century, f.155v, Photo: Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux, CC by 3.0.

Fig. 14 The Mazarine Bible, MS 2, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Twelfth Century, f.47r, Photo: Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux, Photo: CC by 3.0.

Fig. 15 Crusader Sword Pommel, Twelfth to Thirteenth Century, France, Copper Alloy and Enamel, Lent by Laird and Kathleen Landmann, 2011 (L.2011.47), Photo: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Fig. 16. Plan of Bayham Abbey, Photo: S.E. Rigold, Bayham Abbey [London: Department of the Environment, 1974].

Object	Date	Size (cm)	Location
Bayham Plaque	c.1170-90	14.4 x 28.4 x 0.3	British Museum
Châsse: The Crucifixion and Christ in Majesty	c.1190	26 x 29 x 11.5	The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Châsse: The Crucifixion and Christ in Majesty	c.1180-90	26.2 x 30.2 x 11.6	The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Châsse of Saint Stephen	c.1160-70	25.4 x 28.8 x 11.9	Church of Saint-Pardoux, Gimel-les-Cascades (Correze)
Châsse of Saint Martial	c.1165-75	12.5 x 16.5 x 6.7	Musée du Louvre, Paris
Book Cover Plaques: Crucifixion and Christ in Majesty	c.1170-1185	21 x 13.5 x 0.3	Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons
Plaque: The Visitation (from a larger composition)	c.1170-80	9 x 13.9	Musée Municipale de l’Évêché, Limoges
Châsse of Saint Valerie	c.1175-85	23.2 x 28 x 11.5	State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Châsse of Saint Peter	c.1175-85	19 x 26.5 x 11.5	Church of Saint-Anne, Apt
Châsse with the Adoration of the Magi	c.1175	18.6 x 26.1 x 11.5	National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C
Book-Cover Plaque: Crucifixion	c.1180-90	23.5 x 14.1	Musée du Louvre, Paris
Châsse: Christ in Majesty, the Lamb of God	c.1180-90	22 x 23.5 x 10.7	The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Châsse: Christ in Majesty	c.1185-95	14.8 x 16 x 7.8	Musée du Louvre