This chalice and paten are of gold, enriched with precious stones and small cloisonné enamels of unusual workmanship and exquisite colour; they are set among tendril scrolls of filagree. Some critics have put forward a strange theory that these vessels are reminiscent of Byzantine Art, an admissible opinion so far as the influence of style is concerned, but quite unacceptable from the point of view of method and execution.
Tradition has it that they belonged to Saint Gozlin, Bishop of Toul (who died in 952), as also the cover of the Book of the Gospels reproduced in this volume, and the ivory comb. These, and all the most ancient pieces in the treasury of the Abbey of Conques in Rouergue, are examples of most precious rarity of the arts practised in the great Carlovingian abbeys. And Toul, as the see of an extensive bishopric, must no doubt have had monastic workshops like those at Conques.
All these treasures, which were long preserved in the ancient cathedral at Toul, have been transferred to that at Nancy.
Source: Treasures and masterpieces of art. Shown at the 5th World’s Fair in Paris (Exposition universelle de 1900), by Gaston Migeon. Paris: Goupil & cie, 1901.
