The casket of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri

A masterpiece of mediaeval European goldsmithing, it is one of the three “scrinei operis lemovicensis” owned by Guala Bicchieri. It was made in a goldsmith’s workshop in Limoges (France), one of the most important centres of the art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The elegance and exquisiteness of the way the medallions have been worked and of the lock in embossed gilded copper, which is engraved and embellished with enamel inserts, attests to the illustrious memory of Cardinal Guala, an eminent jurist, great diplomat of the papal court and the founder of the church of Sant’Andrea in Vercelli, one of the earliest examples of Gothic architecture in Italy.