SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

Details

An English silk and metal thread embroidered casket
Second half 17th century
The sides depicting Elijah ascending in his fiery chariot and the Sacrifice of Isaac, the fall-front worked with a scene with a gibbet from the story of Esther and Ahasuerus, the reverse with the building of the Tower of Babel, Noah's Ark, and the sermon on the Mount, all within a pastoral landscape, the whole embellished with seed pearls and raised metal flourishes, each corner with three dimensional columns with embroidered ferrules, the top with a compartment, lined with marbled paper, the body of the casket hinged and opening to reveal compartments for five bottles, the fall front revealing three small and one long drawer, faced in marbled paper and stamped in silver with shell motifs, restorations
12in. (30.5cm.) high overall, 11¾in. (19.7cm.) wide overall, 7¾in. (19.7cm.) deep

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis This lot is subject to Collection and Storage charges

Lot Essay

This is a most unusual casket in having three dimensional columns at each corner. Certainly, embroidery workshops would have produced the panels for caskets such as these, and separate specialist work shops would have produced the metal thread work, with a third specialist workshop assembling the finished casket. It would seem that this piece was a commissioned piece of an unusual format. Research is currently underway to determine if other examples have survived.

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