Engraved, chased and partially gilded copper incense burner with champlevé enamel. Limoges. France. Romanesque. ...

Engraved, chased and partially gilded copper incense burner with champlevé enamel. Limoges. France. Romanesque. 13th century.
6 x 19 x 10 cm.
Decorated with scrolls of foliage ornamented in enamel with blue, lapis lazuli, turquoise, red, yellow and green tones.
The lid is in the shape of a vesica piscis and folds into two parts with a central hinge. Only one side opens, and it is decorated with foliage designs and two fretworked cabochons in the shape of a curled-up dragon. This decoration of vegetation with fantastical creatures is topped by two curved handles which end in the shape of a reptile’s head. In this respect the index card by Professor José Luis Hernando Garrido describing an incense burner that can be found in the MNAC Barcelona (inv.12903) for the catalogue of the exhibition "De Limoges a Silos" is very interesting as it is very similar to our example: "It is on this cover that the decoration in a compartment on an enamelled background is concentrated, based on vegetation motifs formed by carving which includes canes winding around themselves. There is a copper button sticking out of each of the leaves, which is fretworked and chased, on which a curled-up dragon is depicted, biting its back, a motif and design which can be found in other very similar incense burners such as one also kept in the MNAC museum (inv. 4545) or the two in the Barcelona Frederic Marès Museum (inv. 833 and 827), but also in other pieces, such as the cover of the Bible of Souvigny, which dates from circa 1180."
This type of receptacle, which had a liturgical use and was an indispensable compliment of the censer as it contained the incense that was burned in these, appeared in France in the early 13th century.
Its name "navire" in French comes from the shape it has of a small ship, also its diminutive "navette", from the original Latin term "navicula".
The foot is missing.

Similar examples:
Two identical incense burners can be found in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon (inv.1264) http://mba-collections.dijon.fr/ow4/mba/voir.xsp?id=00101-13314&qid=sdx_q0&n=2& ;e=
and at the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, in Geneva (inv. N° FGA-AD-OBJ-0085) https://www.fg-art.org/fr/loeuvre-du-mois-archives/une-navette-a-encens-en-email-de-limoges
As indicated by Dr. Fabienne Fravalo, from the "Fundación Gandur", in the index card of their incense burner, very few examples of this type of liturgical objects have arrived to our time, as they were used frequently. Another feature of these enamelled incense burners is that they formed part of church treasuries from the 13th century in the Limoges area and then spreading to the rest of France and Europe. They had the same level of importance as doves of the eucharist, pyxes or enamelled candlesticks. Another very similar incense burner, but with cabochons, is kept at the MNAC in Barcelona (inv.12903)
The lid of a very similar incense burner to this one is kept by the Leicester Arts and Museums Service, since having been found in Leicester Abbey, which is currently in ruins. Https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/gNwyTKf0TUew23FtMwn2Kg
A similar piece, but with angel decoration, can be found at the Musée de Cluny in Paris (inv. N° 11157)
Finally, there is a similar incense burner in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid (inv. 2719)

Bibliographic references:
- De Limoges a Silos". Catalogue of the exhibition in Madrid - Brussels - Santo Domingo de Silos, from November 2001- Abril 2002. Pages. 158-160. Fig. 37 and 38.
- L’Oeuvre de Limoges. Émaux limousins du Moyen Âge, catalogue d’exposition [Paris, Musée du Louvre, 23.10.1995-22.01.1996 ; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4.03-16.06.1996], Paris, Éd. De la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1995.
- GAUTHIER, Marie-Madeleine (dir.), Émaux méridionaux : catalogue international de l’Oeuvre de Limoges. Tome 2 : L’apogée 1190-1215, Paris, éditions du CTHS, 2011.