ON THE RELIGIOUS USE OF VARIOUS STONES 289
Daniel, a lion on either side of him, and inscribed with his name in Greek letters. This is of Byzantine workmanship.18
The
reliquarium of Wittekind, now in the Kunstgewerbe Museum at Berlin, is
considered to be probably the most important specimen of early Frankish
goldsmith-work that has been preserved, and is richly set with precious
stones, some of these being ancient gems. This is one of a number of
cases where engraved stones of Pagan times were used in the adornment
of ornamental objects destined for Christian religious use. The upper
edge shows a row of entwined animal figures, and the front side has
medallions with primitive bird forms in cloisonné enamel; on the
reverse side are very rudely executed repoussé figures of saints. This
work is assigned to the latter part of the eighth century a.D., and
is conjectured to have been a gift from Charlemagne to the Saxon King
Wittekind, on the occasion of the latter 's conversion to Christianity
in the year 807. It was long preserved in Wittekind's foundation at
Enger near Herford, to which he had bequeathed his treasures ; in 1414
it was removed for safe-keeping to the Johanniskirche at Herford,
where it remained until 1888, when it came into the possession of the
Berlin Kunstgewerbe Museum. This precious example of the earliest
German work has the form of a small portable satchel, in which could be
placed those sacred relics the owner might wish to bear around with him
because of the protection they were assumed to afford.168
One
of the most notable and valuable objects in the famous Guelph treasure
that has recently been brought back to the city of Brunswick as a
result of the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland's son, Ernest
Augustus, with the daughter of Emperor William Π, is an elaborately
designed
"
Op. cit., vol. i, Plate LXVII, No. 1 ; described in vol. ii, p. 307. ■"
Handbuch der Königlichen Museum zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbe Museum, by
Julius Leasing, Berlin, 1892, p. 14.
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