Ronde-bosse

The new method involved the partial concealment of the underlying gold, or sometimes silver, from which the figure was formed.

It differs from older techniques which all produced only enamel on a flat or curved surface, and mostly, like champlevé, normally used non-precious metals, such as copper, which were gilded to look like gold.

[3] The technique rapidly reached maturity and produced a group of "exceptionally grand French and Burgundian court commissions, chiefly made c. 1400 but apparently continuing into the second quarter of the fifteenth century".

[4] These include the Goldenes Rössl ("Golden Pony") in Altötting, Bavaria, the most famous of the group,[5] the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum, the Montalto Reliquary,[6] the "Tableau of the Trinity" in the Louvre (possibly made in London),[7] and a handful of other religious works, but the great majority of pieces recorded in princely inventories have been destroyed to recover their gold.

[8] The technique was used on parts of a relatively large sculpture in Benvenuto Cellini's famous Salt Cellar (1543, Vienna) and remained common through to the Baroque, usually in small works and jewellery.