A casket is a

decorative box A decorative box is a form of packaging that is generally more than just functional, but also intended to be decorative and artistic. Many such boxes are used for promotional packaging, both commercially and privately. Historical objects are u ...

or container that is usually smaller than a chest and is typically decorated. In recent centuries they are often used as boxes for jewelry, but in earlier periods they were also used for keeping important documents and many other purposes. Many ancient caskets are

reliquaries A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including '' phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it is housed a ''fer ...

, for both Buddhist and Christian relics. Workshop of the Embriachi family - Bridal Casket with Scenes from the Life of Paris - Walters 71242

A tall round casket is often called a

pyxis Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass (contrasting with Circinus, which represents a draftsman's compasses). Pyxis was introduced by Nicolas-Lo ...

, after a shape in

Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

; these were popular in

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide ra ...

, often made from a section of the ivory tusk of an elephant. The term "casket" overlaps with strongbox (or strong box), a heavily-made box for storing or transporting coin and other valuables. These include more metal, in bands or as the main material, and are functional rather than decorative. Though caskets are often regarded as boxes for jewelry, at least until the Renaissance this was probably not a common use, as at least the most serious jewelry was kept in a strongbox.

History

Surviving caskets from early periods are often made using precious materials, especially

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

, around a wooden framework. In

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

over wood is common. The house-shaped chasse is a very common shape for reliquaries in the Early and High Middle Ages, often in

Limoges enamel Limoges enamel has been produced at Limoges, in south-western France, over several centuries up to the present. There are two periods when it was of European importance. From the 12th century to 1370 there was a large industry producing metal o ...

, but some were also secular. Ferrara, cofanetto con stemma cardinale bernardo cles, 1530-38

The Embriachi workshop in north Italy, and their imitators, specialized in "marriage caskets", presumed to have been presented to a bride-to-be by her new in-laws. These were decorated with carved bone plaques, within a setting of

certosina ''Certosina'' is a decorative art technique of inlaying used widely in the Italian Renaissance period. Similar to marquetry, it uses small pieces of wood, bone, ivory, metal, or mother-of-pearl to create inlaid geometric patterns on a wood base. ...

inlays in wood, and were produced in the decades around 1400. Later in the 15th century caskets decorated in

pastiglia ''Pastiglia'' , an Italian term meaning "pastework", is low relief decoration, normally modelled in gesso or white lead, applied to build up a surface that may then be gilded or painted, or left plain. The technique was used in a variety of way ...

, a type of moulded plaster or

gesso Gesso (; "chalk", from the la, gypsum, from el, γύψος) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates suc ...

, became common for similar purposes.De Winter, 8-15 The so-called

Casket letters The Casket letters were eight letters and some sonnets said to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell, between January and April 1567. They were produced as evidence against Queen Mary by the Scottish lords who opposed ...

were allegedly written by

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

and found in a casket belong to her husband Lord Bothwell. They suggested her complicity in the murder of her previous husband

Lord Darnley Lord Darnley is a noble title associated with a Scottish Lordship of Parliament, first created in 1356 for the family of Stewart of Darnley and tracing a descent to the Dukedom of Richmond in England. The title's name refers to Darnley in Scot ...

, but may well have been invented by her enemies. A

knottekistje A knottekistje or wedding casket is a small Frisian money casket. Apart from their content ''Knottekistjes'' are also valuable since in most cases they are made of silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ' ...

is a Dutch type of wedding casket, typically in silver, given by the bridegroom to the bride, containing coins. They replaced cloth wrappers in the 17th century.Description of a Knottekistje at the Victoria and Albert Museum
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Examples

Some examples have remained unburied from the late Roman Empire. The 4th century

Brescia Casket The Brescia Casket or Lipsanotheca (in Italian ''Lipsanoteca'') is an ivory box, perhaps a reliquary, from the late 4th century, which is now in the Museo di Santa Giulia at San Salvatore in Brescia, Italy. It is a virtually unique survival of ...

, 8th century

Franks Casket The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in ...

and 10th-11th century

Veroli Casket The Veroli Casket is a casket, made in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the late 10th or early 11th century, and now in the Room 8 of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It is thought to have been made for a person close to the Imperial Court ...

are all in elaborately carved

, a popular material for luxury boxes until recent times. Boxes that contain or contained

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s are known as

, though not all were originally made for this purpose.

References

* Winter, Patrick M. de. “A LITTLE-KNOWN CREATION OF RENAISSANCE DECORATIVE ARTS: THE WHITE LEAD PASTIGLIA BOX.” ''Saggi e Memorie Di Storia Dell’arte'' 14 (1984): 7–131
JSTOR

External links

{{Authority control Containers Reliquaries

History

Examples

See also

References

External links