UPDATED — Pair of cloisonne appliques

6 Responses to UPDATED — Pair of cloisonne appliques

1. June 15 2012
   
   Catherine Raymond

   I couldn’t find a clear expla­na­tion of what the cen­tral mate­r­ial is, but I chased a link from a Pin­ter­est board and found a really good, large, color pho­to­graph of them here:

   http://saintdenis-tombeaux.forumculture.net/t234-visite-des-sepultures-merovingiennes-dans-la-zone-des-fouilles-archeologique-sous-la-basilique-samedi-10-decembre-2011

   You need to scroll halfway down the page to find them. The cap­tion, in French, indi­cates that they are made in enamel, gar­net, gold and “orfèvrerie”, a word I don’t know and that Google Trans­late didn’t trans­late well. How­ever, the cen­ter square does not appear to be turquoise–it’s too translu­cent for turquoise. I’d guess it’s glass.

   Good luck track­ing down fur­ther information!

   Reply
• June 15 2012
  
  thealater

  Thanks! Gotta love Pin­ter­est.

  Reply
2. June 16 2012
   
   google

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   Reply
3. August 5 2012
   
   Osric the Odd

   Les Tré­sors Mérovingiens de la Basilique de Saint-Denis (p.97) lists these as being from Sar­cophage #38.

   A trans­la­tion of the inlay says “In the cen­ter is a square of mala­chite recess on each of its dimen­sions by a semi­cir­cle of green glass…”

   And while the text refers to these as “fibules”, their find loca­tion is telling: “one was found at the lum­bar ver­te­brae, 5 cm on the right and one at waist level, slightly to the left.”

   Reply
• August 5 2012
  
  thealater

  So this would likely make them belt plaques?

  Reply
• August 6 2012
  
  Osric the Odd

  They seem to have been in the right area, although they are rather fancy for the sim­ple belt buckle asso­ci­ated with them…

  Still, they are curved in such a way as to sug­gest they dec­o­rated a curved form, like a waist per­haps. Quite unlike the typ­i­cally flat brooches one might com­pare them to. Also, they have mount­ing holes in the cor­ners pre­sum­ably for mount­ing to some sur­face, again unlike brooches.

  Belt plaques seem a safe bet

  Reply