Ivory or Bone Boxes, Coffers, and Caskets

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Boxes, Caskets, and Coffers

Enamel Boxes

Leather Boxes

Metal Boxes

Carved Wood Boxes

Inlaid Wood Boxes

Lacquered Wood Boxes

Painted, Gilt, and/or Gessoed Wood Boxes

Velvet-Covered Wood Boxes

Wood Boxes with Metal Mounts

Bentwood Boxes

Illustrations of Boxes

Chests

The Linkspages at Larsdatter.com



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For more medieval carved ivory beyond these ivory boxes, see the linkspages on oliphants, tablets, combs, and mirrors.

  • WINCM:SMCW84-86 S331A, a bone inlaid box, Winchester (Roman Britain), c. 301-440
  • British Museum 1867,0120.1, the Franks casket/Auzon casket, made of whalebone with scenes from Roman, Jewish, Christian, and Germanic traditions, including Romulus and Remus, Titus and the Sack of Jerusalem, Weyland the Smith, and the Adoration of the Magi; Anglo-Saxon, early 8th century
  • V&A 149-1866 149A-1866, 149B-1866, panels from the Werden casket, probably made about 800 in the Lower Rhine area
    • Examples from Andalusia (including Cordoba), 10th-11th centuries:
  • An article on carved ivory caskets and reliquaries of early northern Europe has photos of several examples, and a procedure used to create a polymer-clay faux-ivory casket.
  • Oriental ivory casket, 10th century (also here and here)
    • Examples from Byzantium (including Constantinople), 10th-13th centuries:
    • Walters 71.295, box with scenes from the Fall of Adam and Eve and the story of Joseph, Byzantine, 10th-11th century
    • Met 17.190.237, casket with warriors and mythological figures in bone plaques and ornamental strips over wood; Byzantium, 900-1100
    • Dumbarton Oaks BZ.1953.1, rosette casket with warriors and Dionysiac figures, bone and ivory on wood, Byzantine, mid-10th to mid-11th century
    • V&A 5471-1859, an ivory casket carved in high relief with pierced borders, late 10th century
    • V&A 216-1865, the Veroli casket, Istanbul, c. 1000; wood overlaid with carved ivory and bone plaques with traces of polychrome and gilding, depicting scenes from classical mythology, including the Rape of Europa, and the stories of Bellerophon and Iphigenia
    • V&A 247:1, 2-1865, a Byzantine casket with bone plaques depicting warriors along the sides and ivory panel with a battle scene on the lid, early 11th century
    • Met 17.190.239, ivory and bone casket with warriors and dancers, Constantinople, 11th century
    • V&A A.8-1937, an ivory casket with mounted and kneeling warriors, huntsmen, centaurs, sphynxes and Eve, Constantinople, 11th-12th century
  • Casket covered in carved bone, Lower Saxony, c. 1000 (also here)
  • The Bamberg Casket (aka the jewelry-box of Queen Kunigunde), ivory and gilt bronze, 11th century (additional views here, here, here, here, here, here, and here)
  • Musée d'art religieux et d'art mosan cat. Puraye nº 268 bis, ivory coffret, ca. 1001-1200
    • Examples from southern Italy and Sicily, 11th-14th centuries:
    • Ivory casket from southern Italy, 11th century (also here)
    • Met 17.190.241, the Morgan casket, ivory; southern Italy or Sicily, 11th-12th centuries
    • Cl. 13433, an ivory coffret with a four-sided lid, Sicily, 12th century
    • Cl. 9698, a coffret painted with knights and birds, second half of the 12th century, Sicily
    • V&A 603-1902, a casket made of carved ivory on wood, painted and gilt with sirens, birds, and Christian saints, withan inscription in Arabic, made in southern Italy in the 12th-13th century
    • V&A 6974-1860, a casket in carved and painted wood with applied pierced and ivory panels, southern Italy, 13th century
    • V&A 425-1906, casket in carved ivory with gilt metal mounts, southern Italy, 13th-14th centuries
    • Palais des Beaux-Arts A89, an ivory jewelry-box, southern Italy (Palermo?), 14th century
  • German casket in bone plates on wood, 11th-12th centuries (also here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here)
  • V&A 2440-1856, a carved bone casket made in England or possibly Germany c. 1120-1140
  • British Museum 1947,0706.1, carved bone casket with romance scenes (Tristam and Isolde), Cologne, c. 1180-1200 (also here)
  • Walters 71.306, truncated pyramidal ivory box with painted and gilded heraldic motifs, 13th century Italy
  • Cl. 432, a coffret with Christ in Majesty on the top, made in 13th century Cologne
  • Louvre MAO684, an ivory coffret with punched and pierced decorations, Spain, 13th-14th century
    • Examples from 14th century France (mostly Parisian examples):
  • Musée Curtius J.B/6, ivory coffret, 14th or 15th century
    • Examples from northern Italy (including Florence and Venice; especially the Embriachi workshop), 14th-16th centuries:
    • Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria INV853, a hexagonal coffret made in northern Italy in the second half of the 14th century
    • V&A 3265-1856, the Sainte-Chapelle casket, made in Venice or Florence, a product of the Embriachi workshop, with the story of Jason in bone plaques on wood with bone marquetry, c. 1390
    • V&A 5624:&2-1859, a marriage casket with the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, Venice or Florence (Embriachi workshop), c. 1390-1410
    • Louvre MRR79;IV110, an ivory coffret with the story of Griseldis from the Decameron, Italy, end of the 14th century-beginning of the 15th century
    • Civici Musei e Gallerie di Storia ed Arte 55, ivory casket, Venice (Embriachi workshop), first half of the 15th century
    • Louvre OA125, marriage-coffret with scenes from the story of Paris, Embriachi workshop, 15th century
    • Met 17.190.490a, b, panels from a pair of caskets made by the Embriachi workshop, c. 1400-1409
    • GNM HG2413, a casket in carved bone and wood and ebony and certosina/intarsia; Venice, c. 1401-1415 (also here, here, here, and here)
    • Cl. 374, an octagonal coffret with the story of Jason; Venice, 15th century
    • Cl. 375, coffret with the story of Elias; Venice, 15th century
    • V&A 4718:2-1859, casket of silver fir inlaid with marquetry of bone ivory and horn, with the story of Susanna and the Fountain of Youth, northern Italy (possibly a later work of the Embriachi workshop), c. 1420-1440
    • GNM HG290, box with hunt scenes in carved bone and wood, northern Italy, c. 1425
    • V&A 4660-1859, ivory casket in wood overlaid with carved and tinted bone; northern Italy, late 15th century
    • Cl. 452, an ivory coffret made in 15th century Venice
    • Cl. 15349, a box-panel with a couple at a fountain, and Cl. 15350, a box-panel with a couple at a tree, northern Italy, fourth quarter of the 15th century; also box panels Cl. 15351 (a stag with a shield) and Cl. 15352 (a dragon), both 15th century Italian
    • Sotheby's Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture Lot 287, a north Italian bone and ivory inlaid wedding casket depicting the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, Embriachi School, circa 1500 and later
  • Walters 71.204, a box panel with lovers exchanging gifts, Burgundy or Flanders, c. 1410-1420
  • V&A 7660-1862, casket in bone, ivory, horn and silk on a wooden carcase; upper Rhine or eastern France, c. 1420-1450
  • V&A 176-1866, an ivory casket with 20 scenes from the Life of the Virgin, made in the southern Netherlands c. 1430-1460
  • Walters 71.251, a casket with scenes from the Passion of Christ, Netherlands, c. 1450
  • Bunratty Collection 425, an octagonal lidded casket of bone, stained in various colors, probably German, 15th century
  • Museum Vleeshuis 31.G.10, an ivory casket, c. 1491-1500