inv. 3201
Silver-gilt, with leather, over a wood core; approx. l. 16.2 × w. 8.9 × h. 11.6 cm
Provenance: in the collection of Martine-Marie-Octavie Pol de Béhague, Comtesse de Béarn
(1870–1939); by descent to Marquis Jean-Louis Hubert de Ganay (1922–2013); sold at Sotheby's Monaco, Antiquités et Objets d'Art: Collection de Martine, Comtesse de Béhague, Provenant de la Succession du Marquis de Ganay, 5 Dec 1987, Monaco, lot 189; in a private collection in Italy; Pierre Bergé Auctions, Paris 26 June 2019, lot 1; with Marc Antoine du Ry when acquired by the Wyvern Collection in 2026.
This silver-gilt casket is an exceptionally rare survival of early medieval precious-metalwork, potentially representing an important addition to the small corpus of English metalwork surviving from around the time of the Norman Conquest. Despite later alterations to its roof, hinges, hasp and feet, the casket remains in a remarkable state of preservation, particularly given the widespread loss of medieval objects made from precious metals.
Measuring approximately 16.2 × 8.9 × 11.6 cm, the casket consists of a rectangular wooden core with a pitched lid, covered with partially gilded silver sheets. These were worked in repoussé, a technique in which metal is hammered from the reverse to create designs in low relief, before selected details were highlighted with gilding. The sheets were then nailed to the wooden core, covering the four sides, the lid and, unusually, even the underside of the casket. One of the sheets from the lid is now missing and has been replaced with leather, possibly during the eighteenth century, although the alteration may be earlier.(1) The wooden structure of the roof is also a later replacement, while the main body of the casket is thought to retain its original core.
The wooden core, thought to be made from either yew or cedar, can be compared with other surviving early medieval reliquaries, including the statue-reliquary of Sainte-Foy of Conques, dating from the late tenth to early eleventh century, and an Anglo-Saxon reliquary cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated to around 900-1000.(2) Radiocarbon analysis of the wood produced three possible calibrated date ranges: 1045-1085, 1094-1107 and 1120-1219.(3) A more precise date for the casket's manufacture must therefore rely substantially on stylistic analysis, complicated by the relatively small number of comparable metalwork objects surviving from this period.
The decoration combines figurative, foliate and geometric motifs across the eight surviving silver panels. The front and back of the casket display the symbols of the Four Evangelists: the eagle of St John and the winged ox of St Luke on the front, and the winged lion of St Mark and the angel of St Matthew on the reverse. The shorter sides are ornamented with eight-petalled rosettes, while the surviving panels of the lid feature lotus buds and seed pods. Even the underside, a surface rarely intended for display, is embellished with an intricate geometric pattern.
The unusual combination of decorative motifs has prompted considerable investigation into the casket's artistic origins. Marc Antoine du Ry and Donald White have identified parallels in manuscript illumination and metalwork from Anglo-Saxon England, Carolingian and Ottonian Europe, Italy and Byzantium.(4) Some elements of the ornament preserve earlier, even pre-Carolingian traditions, while others anticipate the richer, Byzantine-influenced decorative vocabulary of Romanesque art. The casket therefore appears to occupy a transitional moment in medieval artistic production, resisting straightforward attribution to a single regional tradition.
Particularly significant are the unusual lotus-bud motifs, which have close parallels in Anglo-Saxon manuscript illumination and sculpture, including the ninth-century Book of Cerne and the sculptural decoration surviving at Breedon Priory Church, Leicestershire.(5) These comparisons lend some support to the possibility of an English origin. The diversity of artistic influences may also point towards production in a monastic setting, since monasteries formed extensive networks through which manuscripts, objects, craftsmen and artistic ideas circulated across medieval Europe. A Benedictine context has been proposed for the casket, with Canterbury suggested as one possible centre of production, although an English origin remains unproven.
The casket's original function is similarly uncertain. It may have served as a reliquary, intended to contain the sacred remains of a saint. However, the absence of iconography identifying a particular saint, or a dedicated opening for viewing relics, has prompted the suggestion that it was more probably a sacramental vessel. It may have been a chrismatory, designed to contain the three holy oils used in Christian rites including baptism, anointing of the sick and ordination, or a chrismal, intended for storing or dispensing the consecrated Host.(6) Although the distinction between these two types of vessel was not always clear in the medieval period, the casket's Evangelist symbols and foliate decoration, with their associations of salvation and eternal life, would have been appropriate to either function.
Although its precise origins and purpose remain unresolved, the casket's exceptional preservation, elaborate decoration and unusual combination of artistic traditions make it a significant witness to the circulation of objects and ideas across Europe during the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Romanesque art.
This object is currently on loan to Norwich Castle Museum for a display entitled 'Treasures of the Norman world: loans from the Wyvern Collection' - more information is avaliable here.
(1) Marc Antoine du Ry and Donald White, Medieval Art in Focus vol. VII: A Silver-gilt Shrine (2021), unpaginated.
(2) The statue of Sainte-Foy of Conques is the oldest extant figural reliquary and as such is widely published and discussed, for example see Martina Bagnoli et al. (eds), Treasures of Heaven: Saints, relics, and devotion in Medieval Europe (London, 2011), p. 25, for the V&A cross see their online cataloguing (https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O111551/reliquary-cross-crucifix-unknown, April 2005) ; for a discussion of their relevance to the Wyvern Casket see du Ry and White, 'material analysis'.
(3) The casket underwent scientific analysis at the CIRAM Science for Art and Cultural Heritage lab in January 2021.
(4) du Ry and White.
(5) ibid.; Jewell, Richard. ‘The Anglo-Saxon Friezes at Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire’, Archaeologia 108 (1986), pp. 95-115; the book of Cerne is Cambridge University Library Ms Ll.1.10, for the digitised manuscript see: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LL-00001-00010/59.
(6) du Ry and White, 'Function and Iconography'.