Unknown Maker, French

The pyx was a container used to carry consecrated wafers to the sick or to those otherwise unable to come to church. This vessel’s brilliant enamel design was created using champlevé (raised field). In this technique, depressions are created in the metal ground. These cells or fields are then filled with powdered glass and the work is fired. To indicate the nature of the vessel, the Latin cross was employed for the finial form and in the quatrefoil pattern.