This altar was dismantled and divided amongst the Crusaders at the taking of Constantinople in 1204. The next important works in date are the gold altar of Ambrose at Milan, made by Volvinius in 825; the votive crown of St. Mark, Venice, 886-911; the Limburg reliquary made for Basil II. (the Macedonian), 976; and the famous altar, the Pala d'Oro, in St. Mark's, Venice, 976-1105, made at Constantinople, and brought from there to Venice by order of the Doge Ordelafo Faliero. This altar had precious stones added to it and was enlarged in 1209 and in 1345. If the crown of Charlemagne (Fig. 96) was used at his coronation it would make the date of the four enamelled gold plates with the figures of Solomon, David, and Our Lord between two seraphim and Esaias and Hezekiah, anterior to the year a.d. 800, when he was crowned. These enamels are enclosed in filigree bands and: sunk into the metal in the Greek manner.

The Sword Of Charlemagne

The Sword Of Charlemagne, made in the ninth century, has the golden scabbard inlaid with filagree Cloisonn*š enamels. Both the sword and crown are in the Imperial treasury at Vienna.

The gold altar tray and chalice (Fig. 94) were found near Gourdon, in the Department of the Haute-Sa*œne. The altar tray has a cross in the centre, and lozenge and trefoil ornaments of Cloisonn6 garnet-coloured enamels. Greek coins of the sixth century were found with it.

The Byzantine reliquary (Fig. 95) is another example of Cloisonn*š work.

At Cologne, in the cathedral, is the shrine of the Magi that contains the skulls of the "Three Kings." This is a magnificent reliquary made by the order of the Archbishop Philip von Heinsberg in two storeys, both of which have a series of arcades with figures in each. It is also an example of enamelled work in which the Cloisonn*š and Champlev*š processes may be seen.

The first authentic or dated specimens of Champlev*š enamels belong to the twelfth century, though some specimens are likely of an earlier date. Some crosses and other works of the dates 1041-1054 show a mixture of the two embedded varieties of enamels.

It is probable that the Rhenish Provinces of Germany were the first places where Champlev*š enamels were extensively made; but almost simultaneously in the twelfth century there arose an active centre of work in this method in Limoges, the future great seat of the enamel industry.

The German variety may be distinguished from the French by the greater number of colours employed : there is a difficulty in deciding which of the two is the earlier.

The Abb*š Suger, when building the Abbey of St. Denis, brought enamellers from Loraine, near the Rhine, to make an enamelled cross, which they completed between 1143 and 1147. A portable altar, and a cruciform reliquary with a dome, in the treasury at Hanover, are early examples of the German school. One of these portable altars in enamel, of the German school, thirteenth century, is shown at Fig. 98. The earliest Champlev*š enamel of the Limoges school is that of the monument to Geoffrey Plantagenet, who died in 1151. It is now in the Museum of Le Mans (Fig. 97).

At Limoges towards the end of the twelfth century Champlev*š enamels were made in great numbers. Two specimens of this date are in the Cluny Museum in Paris: one has the subject of the adoration of the Magi, and the other St. Stephen with St. Nicholas, both having Limousin legends. In the same museum are Champlev*š enamels as book-covers of the Gospels, croziers, plaques, and "gemel-lions." The latter is the name given to certain hand-basins used for religious purposes. In the Louvre is an example of Champlev*š enamel - a ciborium of the fourteenth century. This is a vessel in which the Host is kept. Another vessel used for similar purposes is the pyx. Both are small round boxes in which the sacred wafers were kept, and were used for carrying the sacrament to the sick. Ciboria were also in the forms of doves or little towers suspended over the altar. They were kept in little cupboards on either side of the altar, and at later periods the name "ciborium" was applied to the tabernacles having architectural pretensions erected over the altar, and which had a canopy or curtain used as a covering. These tabernacles became shrines of great size and beauty in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and were carved in wood as that in Nuremberg by Adam Kraft, or were stone erections of great dimensions with sculptured figures as decorations, the doors of which were often made in gold and enamelled. Fig. 423 (previous volume) is an example of a fifteenth-century tabernacle with a gilt metal door.

When Justinian rebuilt Sta. Sophia he placed in it a ciborium or tabernacle of great splendour. Ciboria are now changed into what are known as baldacchinos.

In the Kensington and British Museums are many examples of Champlev*š enamels, both German and Limoges, such as book-covers, croziers, pricket candlesticks, chÆ'sses, chefs, reliquaries, paxes, crosses, and nuptial caskets, etc. Most of them have blue grounds, with light bluish-grey and dark blue or green ornaments, and are usually enamelled on copper. Some of the reliquaries or chÆ'sses have gilt figures in high relief. From the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries is the date of these enamels.

In the latter end of the thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries enamels became simplified in execution; the figures were mostly incised and gilt, and the background a level coating of enamel - generally of a blue colour. (Fig. 100.) Fig. 99 is a Limoges enamelled chÆ'sse or shrine of the twelfth century, and is in the British Museum.