Monstrance

National Collection of Qatar

Currently not on display

Title:: Monstrance

Maker:: Joseph Chaumet

Production place:: France
Date:: 1894
Period:: 19th century CE

Material:: Gold, Glass, Diamond, Amethyst, Enamel, Sardonyx, Agate, Silver
Technique:: Cutting, Carving, Polishing, Gilding, Casting, Enamelling, Setting, Soldering, Engraving, Chasing
Dimensions:: 18.5 × 12 × 7 cm

This monstrance was crafted by Chaumet in 1894. It is shaped as an oval gold container (now empty) surrounded by twelve white pastes (originally diamonds) applied to a wide gold frame chased with flowers and leaves and inscribed in rose diamonds with three Christian virtues in Latin: SPES (hope), FIDES (faith), CARITAS (charity), surmounted by an amethyst (originally a sapphire). Two angles with golden wings and white enameled robes support a cross inscribed with the motto IN HOC SIGNO VINCES (By this sign you shall conquer). The whole supported by the figure of Saint George dressed as a knight sitting astride a sardonyx horse, his spear killing the enameled gold demon below, on a banded agate rock.

The clients, Viscount Eugène des Sartiges (1853-1913) and his wife Églée de Laveyrie (1860-1896) kept the monstrance in the private chapel of their Louveciennes house (France).

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