As Ernest Rupin noted in 1890, chrismatories remain a rare product in Limousin workshops. Since M. C. Ross’ study on this type of box, in which about a dozen are cited, a few others have been identified, but the group clearly does not exceed twenty or so pieces. Within this group, the chrismatory formerly in the Bourgeois collection is a unique example because it is the only known one to be adorned with historiated decoration.

On the principal face, on the body of the box, the three Holy Women, dressed in long robes covered with mantles and carrying their ointment jars, move forward in a row towards Christ’s tomb, which here takes the form of a Byzantine-inspired canopy. The first of the women kneels in front of it, pointing to the shroud, enamelled in blue surrounded by white, which had wrapped the body of Christ; a fold of the fabric falls along the side of the tomb. On the right, the empty sepulchre is also indicated by an angel seated on an enamelled rainbow.

While the representation of the Holy Women at the Tomb is found on a number of Limousin reliquary shrines and tabernacles, the way the scene is treated here is quite original, insofar as it does not make use of a pre-existing formula.

Beyond its rare iconography, the chrismatory from the former Bourgeois collection stands out for the absence of appliqué heads and the very high quality of its craftsmanship. This is especially noticeable in the quality of the design and the composition of the principal scene as well as in the various attitudes of the angels. The richness of the enamel palette and the refinement of the stippling on the reserved areas point to a dating at the beginning of the thirteenth century, between 1210 and 1215.