Dual purpose

Reliquary Triptych

Paris or England, early 14th century
Basse-taille and champlevé enamel and gilding on silver
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Theodora Wilbour Fund, in memory of Charlotte Beebe Wilbour 58.354

no. 61

Books were precious possessions. Household inventories show that families kept prayer books in special coffers or cabinets, or sometimes in a corner of a room furnished with candlesticks and devotional objects, like [this] small reliquary triptych and a box-shaped pendant decorated with images of Saints Margaret and Catherine. Small enough to fit into one’s hand, these little gems repaid a devotee’s gaze with beautiful materials and rich iconography. Like Books of Hours, they were aids to devotion in the most personal, tactile, intimate fashion.

[Other objects in the exhibition that are mentioned in this wall text: Candlesticks (no. 60), and Box-shaped Pendant with St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and Inscriptions Referring to the Holy Face (Veronica’s veil) and the Three Kings (no. 62).]