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Maker: uncertain
Copper, champlevé, engraved, enamelled, and gilt.
Copper, champlevé, engraved, enamelled in mid-blue, turquoise green, yellow, and a little red enamel, and gilt. Cylindrical with a gilded cupola inside the lower part, and a conical cover surmounted by a replacement flat cross. The outside is decorated with four four medallions each containing a half-length angel with halo raising out of clouds, reserved in the metal. On the cover there are four similar medallions with angels, and between them trefoil and triangular designs in wavy bands of differing colours.
History note: Uncertain before testator
L.D. Cunliffe Bequest, 1937
Height: 9.5 cm
Height: 3½ in
Width: 8 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1937) by Cunliffe, Leonard Daneham
13th Century
Medieval
Circa
1200
CE
-
1300
CE
A pyx (from Latin pyxis, a box), is a container for the Euchar¬istic bread or Host (Latin hostia, a victim or sacri¬fice). By the thirteenth century two pyxes were considered necessary for each church: one to hold the unconsacrated wafers, and the other to hold the consecrated wafers. Numerous champlevé enamel pyxes have survived which suggests that they were among the most frequently commissioned liturgical objects. Foliated scrolls and busts of angels in were one of the most common types of decoration. The popularity of angels may be related to a reference to the Host as the ‘bread of angels’ (panis angelorum) by Saint Augustine (354-430), and later by medieval theologians.
Hinge Plaque
composed of
iron
( tested with magnet)
Decoration
composed of
enamel
gold
Base
Diameter 6.8 cm
Diameter 2⅝ in
Drum Only
Height 1¼ in
Accession number: M.12-1938
Primary reference Number: 139828
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Pyx" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/139828 Accessed: 2024-12-18 18:04:04
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/139828
|title=Pyx
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 18:04:04|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-139828
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa36/M_12_1938_srgb_2010_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
alt="Pyx"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Pyx</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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