Emblazoned Gemellion

ca. 1250-1300

The bowls for washing the hands known as gemellions were traditionally made in pairs, one with a spout so that water could be poured out of it and over the hands into the other. This one presents interior decoration composed almost exclusively of escutcheons but with no real heraldic meaning. As in the great majority of such cases, it is simply a decorative motif responding to the marked taste of the time for armorial bearings. Produced in Limoges all through the second half of the 13th century, these basins of chased enamel were probably based on a model taken back from the Islamic world by crusaders.