History
In recent times they are mostly receptacles for trinkets and jewels, but in earlier periods, when other types of container were rarer, and the amount of documents held by the typical person far fewer, they were used for keeping important documents and many other purposes. It may take a very modest form, covered in leather and lined with satin, or it may reach the monumental proportions of the jewel cabinets which were made for Marie Antoinette, one of which is at Windsor, and another at Versailles. Both were the work of Schwerdfeger as cabinet maker, his assistants Michael Reyad, Mitchell Stevens, Christopher Visvis, Degault as miniature painter, and Thomire as chaser.
Caskets are often made in precious materials, such as gold, silver or ivory. In ancient East Asia, caskets often made in wood, china, or covered with selk. Some of these caskets could be collected as decorative boxes.
Some examples have remained above ground from the late Roman Empire. The 8th century Franks Casket and 10th-11th century Veroli Casket are both in elaborately carved ivory, a popular material for luxury boxes until recent centuries. Boxes that contain or contained relics are known as reliquaries, though not all were originally made for this purpose. The house-shaped chasse is a very common shape for reliquaries in the High Middle Ages, often in Limoges enamel, but some were also secular.
| This article about furniture or furnishing is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Read more about this topic: Casket
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)