Anglo-Saxon reliquary cross

The corpus or figure of Christ, was probably made in Winchester, and is in walrus ivory; the titulus and medallions are in cloisonné enamel, and apparently also English.

[1] The body of the reliquary, because of a technical "trick" in the gold filigree, is thought to be German, around the same date, probably from the area of Aachen and Essen.

[2] The V&A says "the cross is one of the rare surviving pieces which give substance to descriptions in contemporary documentary sources of the sumptuous church furnishings of pre-Conquest England.

It is most unlikely because of its size and weight, that it was made to be worn as a pectoral cross and more probable that the suspension loop allowed it to hang above an altar or shrine.

A fragmentary and not totally legible inscription around the edge of the cross seems to list the relics of saints once contained in the cavity beneath the ivory figure of Christ.