The Reliquary · Where Each Piece Is Kept

BROKEN HEARTS · Reliquary

Every piece travels inside a reliquary, which keeps it the way a museum would. The first comes with your first piece. The others are not bought: they are reached, inside Fragmenta.

I

LIMEN

The threshold.

From your first piece · you are here

The first thing of BROKEN HEARTS you hold in your hands, before the piece. Full grain means the hide keeps its whole surface: it is not sanded or corrected, so no two carry the same marks. It closes with a leather tie wrapped around it.

Leather: Full-grain calfskin
Colour: Black
Origin: Calves raised in Italy
Made: Cut and sewn by hand in Italy

I

LIMEN

What full grain is

The grain is the outermost layer of the hide, the one that carried the hair. Full grain means it stays intact: not sanded, not corrected, not embossed. What you see is the hide as it was.

Why it is precious

It is the densest and strongest part, and the rarest: only a hide without flaws can carry it, because nothing covers them. It breathes, it darkens with use, it takes a patina. A corrected leather is buffed and coated with a pigmented film that hides the marks and stops the ageing.

The history

It is the leather of saddlery and bookbinding: for centuries the only one used where an object had to last a lifetime and age well. Not a matter of style. It is what was used when things had to remain.

II

VOTUM

The vow.

For The Devoted

The shape of LIMEN, cut from another leather. It comes to those who have reached The Devoted in Fragmenta: those who come back, and not by chance.

Leather: Full grain, worked by the tannery
Edition: Limited, some in colour
Made: Cut and sewn by hand in Italy

II

VOTUM

Not another animal

Precious does not mean another animal: it means what the tannery does to the hide, and the time it takes. Slow work, done on a few hides at a time, that few tanneries still do.

Why it is limited

Each working yields a small number of good hides. VOTUM is cut from those, when there are any: this is why it is limited, and why it sometimes has a colour LIMEN will never have.

III

UNICUM

The only one.

For The Chosen

Shaped around the piece it will hold, one at a time. Closed, it looks like a stone; open, the piece rests at the top of the steps, as in a museum case. It belongs to those the concierge has named The Chosen, inside Fragmenta: it is not reached by counting pieces, however many, and it is not asked for. A person decides.

Material: Acrylic resin
Form: Fitted to the piece ordered
Made: By hand, by the founder
Edition: One of one