NARRATOR: This label is marked with a letter “I” – indicating one of our “Investigations” stops. Here, Curator Stefan Heidemann is joined by a Conservator, Jean-Francois De Lapérouse.

STEFAN HEIDEMANN: The object we are looking at is a round box with a lid on top. …Why it is so difficult to see the details?

JEAN-FRANCOIS DE LAPÉROUSE: I have to say that when I first saw this piece, I was struck by how altered the object looks now compared to when it was originally produced. The artist would have started with a gold-colored copper alloy, an alloy of copper and zinc, sometimes with the addition of tin and lead, especially for cast pieces. The surface then would have been engraved for the reception in the background of a black organic inlay and a silver inlay. Quite often additional details, such as facial features… would have been added by engraving. Unfortunately, over time, polishing with very abrasive materials has served to efface a lot of this engraved decoration and sometimes has worn away the silver completely. Alternately, because of its intrinsic value, the silver was removed at a later time.

STEFAN HEIDEMANN: We see around the box eight niches with images which reminds someone as Christian, because they look almost like saints. You get the idea very clear if you look at the lid, where a figure is sitting with a boy child in her arms. But in the 13th Century, the majority of the population was Muslim. We think that these images might have taken as a model Christian images. But the people who bought this, who commissioned them,… saw them what they are: a figure with a child in her or his arms.

NARRATOR: To hear about cultural exchanges during this period resulting from the Crusades, press PLAY.