Gothic Wooden Casket With Iron Mounts. France, 15th Century.

A Gothic wooden casket with iron mounts.

France, 15th century.

Measurements: 22 x 18 x 11 cm.

Of rectangular form with a slightly domed lid, the casket is constructed in wood and extensively strengthened with wrought-iron mounts. The exterior retains an early, though later, green-painted surface, while the interior is finished in red. The ironwork is arranged in a disciplined decorative scheme: the hinge straps are serrated, the straps across the lid are straight, and those to the reverse taper elegantly, all punctuated by floret-shaped terminals and intervals linked by narrow iron bands. The mounts preserve traces of their original gilding together with areas of red polychromy.

Particularly notable is the handle mount to the lid, formed as a Lombardic letter ‘M’, probably intended as a reference to Maria, the Madonna, and lending the casket a distinctive Gothic identity. The survival of the painted surfaces, together with the remnants of gilding and polychromy on the mounts, gives the casket considerable visual presence and speaks to the richness of its conception within the tradition of late medieval metalwork.