Bottle Applique or Seal

Moulded glass applique, roughly circular, once attached to a vessel (or used as a seal for a bottle or other stoppered vessel). Slightly off-centre is a raised Chi-Rho in the form of a crux monogrammatica, composed of the Latin cross combined with the Greek letter rho (P). Surrounded by a ring of cicular bosses in high relief. This is one of the earliest forms of Christogram. In early Christianity crucifixion was a shameful death for criminals, and so the forms of the cross adopted combined the shape of the Greek letters Chi and Rho which were the first two letters of ‘Christ’ in Greek.