Object details
Accession number
M27w42
Primary Creator
French, Limoges
Full title
Reliquary Casket
Creation Date
about 1200-1250
Object Case
Ecclesiastical Case
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Theodor Einstein & Co., Munich on 16 August 1897 for 1230 marks through her husband, John L. Gardner, Jr. (1837–1898).
Dimensions
16.5 x 13.5 x 8 cm (6 1/2 x 5 5/16 x 3 1/8 in.)
Display Media
Champlevé enamel on copper with semi-precious stones
Web Commentary
Created in the Middle Ages for important ecclesiastical and royal patrons, the colorful enamels of Limoges, France were renowned throughout Europe. Four figures of saints decorate the front of this reliquary casket which would house the relics (fragments of bone, skin, or hair) of a holy person. Isabella purchased it in 1897 when she and her husband Jack were visiting Munich, Germany. She placed it with other liturgical items in the Ecclesiastical Case in the Long Gallery.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 240.
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 8, no. 8 (25 Oct. 1964), p. 2.
Rights and reproductions
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