This baroque casket, or Sepolcro, with its scalloped pentagonal form, asymmetrically scrolled feet, pilasters and scallop-shell handle-plates, was originally enhanced by figurative bronzes and jewelled fruit-filled festoons of semi-precious stones, which were reputedly removed during the Napoleonic invasion. With its eared segmental 'Doric' key-stone pediment, 'triumphal' laurel leaves ad elaborate scrolled angle consoles, it is indebted to the architectural vocabulary employed by Bernini on the 'Cathedra Petri' in St. Peter's (1657 - 66). Both stylistically and in the quality of the ormolu, this monumental casket can be associated with the Valadier Dynasty of Roman Goldsmiths, particularly the oeuvre of Luigi Valadier (1726 - 85). Cf. The designs for a sarcophagus (circa 1765 - 70) and a tabernacle for the Cathedral of Seville (circa 1770) in Valadier, Exhibition Catalogue, Artemis Group, May 1991, p. 74, fig. 42 and p. 83, fig. 46). A related design for a culla, or cradle, from the workshop of Andrea Fantoni is illustrated in C. Alberici, Il Mobile Lombardo, Milan 1969, p. 88