Crosier head, gilded copper with champlevé enamel, France, Limoges, ca.1250

Crosier or pastoral staff. The decoration on each side consists of a trellis-pattern in deep blue enamel, the outlines gilt. Three dragons are attached to the socket with their heads downwards and their tails curled up to support the knop. The back of each dragon is set with three turquoise pastes. The knop is of a flattened spherical form with a central ridge and has three dragons on the upper part and three in the lower, all in gilt copper openwork, their eyes set with turquoise pastes. The crook which rises from a collar of leaves, has crocketed outer edge and terminates in a monster's head from the lower part, a leafy stem connects it with the staff. The group of the coronation of the Virgin is in gilt metal.

Sacred Exhibition RF.2006/484

The crosier is an ecclesiastical ornament which is conferred on bishops at their consecration and on mitred abbots at their investiture, and which is used by these prelates in performing certain solemn functions. It is sometimes stated that archbishops do not use the crosier. This is not so, the truth being that in addition to the pastoral staff they have also the right to have the archiepiscopal cross borne before them within the territory of their jurisdiction.

According to Watts, the crosier was certainly in use in Gaul in the sixth century. It was in all probability in the first instance an ensign of office or dignity, an emblem of authority; however the predominant idea symbolised by the form of the crosier became that of pastoral care.

The form of the present cross, with the spiral of the crook extending into an elongated curl, appears to have developed in the 10th century. The addition of a well defined knop appears in examples from the beginning of twelfth-century. The thirtenth-century witnessed the production of a large number of pastoral staves with a variety of subjects depicted in the volute. Limoges was the chief centre for the production of this type.
By the end of the thirteenth-century the popularity of the enamelled crosiers of Limoges appears to have waned, and the more or less stereotyped models which poured from its workshops in large numbers, made way for crosiers of an increased richness and elaborate magnificence.

J.C. Robinsons noted that "The Limoges crosier heads were, in fact, a current article of manufacture, and as such, beautiful as they are, are not to be ranked with the splendidly wrought crosiers in more precious metals, which were possessed by the highest orders of the episcopal order. It is most likely, indeed, that they were more particularly designed as sepulchral crosiers...most of the Limoges crosiers now extant have indeed been removed from tombs...The Limoges crosiers are of very uniform types, a few prescriptive models seeming to have been adhered to with great constancy."

Watts, while not subscribing to this statement in its entirety - concurs that where a crosier is found, which has individuality or shows divergence from an established type, it may reasonably be assumed to be for someone special. The present cross shows no such divergence however. Indeed, the commonest decorative scheme on Limoges crosiers occurs on the present example - the staff head is covered with a scale work pattern in dark blue enamel, the outline of the scales being gilt. The coronation of the Virgin is also one of the more frequently occuring scenes placed within the volute of a Limoges crosier.

“The Coronation of the Virgin” is part of the iconography of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is often subdivided into four parts — the dormition, the burial, the assumption, and the coronation.

The coronation of Mary is not a biblical scene, or even a prominent one in the Golden Legend, but is based on Psalm 44: 11-12 in the Vulgate and the Song of Songs (4: 8). It is paraphrased as “Veni electa mea…in thronum meum” (“Come, chosen one to my throne”).

The crosier is an ecclesiastical ornament which is conferred on bishops at their consecration and on mitred abbots at their investiture. It is used by these prelates in performing certain ecclesiastical rituals.Crosiers often depict one or more saints dear to their original owners, or to the church where they were used. Many churches were dedicated to the Virgin Mary and it seems likely that this crosier was used in such a church.
The scene depicted inside the curve of this crosier is the Coronation of the Virgin. This event is part of the iconography of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is often subdivided into four parts — The Dormition, The Burial, The Assumption, and The Coronation. The Coronation of the Virgin is not a scene described in the New Testament, or even a prominent one in the Golden Legend, but is based on Psalm 44: 11-12 in the Vulgate and the Song of Songs (4: 8).

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