The technique of painted enamels was perfected in France during the first half of the seventeenth century. The first, hesitant attempts to reproduce it in Constantinopolitan workshops date to the mid-seventeenth century. This pastoral staff of Athanasios, Abbot of the Monastery, is a specimen of the application of this technique in the early eighteenth century. The ivory crown of the staff is overlaid with small gold tiles and precious stones, and is supported by a copper rod, covered in opaque, white enamel, decorated with delicate floral patterns in colored enamels.
