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Acasket[1] is adecorative box or container that is usually smaller than a chest and is typically decorated. In recent centuries they are often used as boxes for jewelry, but in earlier periods they were also used for keeping important documents and many other purposes.[2] Many ancient caskets arereliquaries, for both Buddhist and Christian relics.
A tall round casket is often called apyxis, after a shape inAncient Greek pottery; these were popular inIslamic art, often made from a section of the ivory tusk of an elephant.
The term "casket" overlaps with strongbox (or strong box), a heavily-made box for storing or transporting coin and other valuables. These include more metal, in bands or as the main material, and are functional rather than decorative. Though caskets are often regarded as boxes for jewelry, at least until the Renaissance this was probably not a common use, as at least the most serious jewelry was kept in a strongbox.[3]
Surviving caskets from early periods are often made using precious materials, especiallyivory, around a wooden framework. InEast Asialacquer over wood is common. The house-shapedchasse is a very common shape for reliquaries in the Early and High Middle Ages, often inLimoges enamel, but some were also secular.
TheEmbriachi workshop in north Italy, and their imitators, specialized in "marriage caskets", presumed to have been presented to a bride-to-be by her new in-laws. These were decorated withcarved bone plaques, within a setting ofcertosina inlays in wood, and were produced in the decades around 1400.[4] Later in the 15th century caskets decorated inpastiglia, a type of moulded plaster orgesso, became common for similar purposes.[5]
The so-calledCasket letters were allegedly written byMary, Queen of Scots and found in a casket belong to her husbandLord Bothwell. They suggested her complicity in the murder of her previous husbandLord Darnley, but may well have been invented by her enemies.
Aknottekistje is a Dutch type of wedding casket, typically in silver, given by the bridegroom to the bride, containing coins. They replaced cloth wrappers in the 17th century.[6]
Some examples have remained unburied from thelate Roman Empire. The 4th centuryBrescia Casket, 8th centuryFranks Casket and 10th-11th centuryVeroli Casket are all in elaborately carvedivory, a popular material for luxury boxes until recent times. Boxes that contain or containedrelics are known asreliquaries, though not all were originally made for this purpose.
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