The inside, or under the foot of the cup, is divided into a series of circular divisions around a central crystal, composed of amber and bronze, gold filigree, amber, bronze, and translucent green enamels respectively. In some of the enamels were embedded small portions or grains of gold while the enamel was in fusion. There is a chiselled inscription on the plain surface of the bowl consisting of the names of the Apostles. The workmanship of this exquisite chalice is infinitely superior to the Byzantine work of the same period. A detailed and exhaustive description of this chalice is given in Miss Stokes’s “Early Christian Art in Ireland,” from which our illustration is taken. Going back to the ninth century, we have the ring of King Ethelwulf, bearing his name, which is of Saxon workmanship. It was found in Hampshire, and is made of gold and blue-black enamel. Another ring, that of Alfred the Great, was found at Athelney in Somersetshire, the place where Alfred retired to in 878. It is of gold, wrought in filigree and chased. The face is of rock crystal, and the design is in filigree fastened to the gold plate and enamelled in the Byzantine manner. Round the edge is the inscription (translated), “Alfred ordered me to be made.” Enamelled disks, fibulæ, finger rings, and other articles of personal adornment have been found in England of the Anglo-Saxon period, mostly having a bronze foundation for the enamel. Documents are preserved at Oxford proving that Limoges enamellers were brought over to England in the thirteenth century to execute effigies, tombs, and other work in enamels. Master John, a native of Limoges, was employed to construct the tomb and recumbent figure of Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester. This work was destroyed at the period of the Reformation. There still exists, however, some of the Limoges work of that date in the effigy of William de Valence, who died in 1129. This tomb is in Westminster Abbey. The enamels known as _émaux de plique à jour_, are a kind of Cloisonné work in which there was no background, the enamel being in variety transparent, in imitation of precious stones, and set between the Cloisons or network of gold. The beautiful specimen (Fig. 103) is a cup with a cover, and with architectural features; it is now in South Kensington Museum. Translucent enamels upon relief date from the period when Art in Italy was beginning to throw off the stiffness and angularity of Byzantine traditions. This was towards the end of the thirteenth century, in the early dawn of the Renaissance.