Jewel Casket

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Elizabeth Siddal

General Description

Date: 1860-1861

Bibliography

◦ Treuherz, Prettijohn, Becker, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 227-228

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This pastiche medieval jewel case may have been Siddal's originally, though it later came into Jane Morris's possession and is now preserved at Kelmscott Manor. It has fourteen small panels though only half still have their original decorations. “One of the scenes, showing two lovers by a rose trellis, derives from a medieval manuscript in the British Museum, the early 15th century Poems of Christine de Pisan ( Treuherz, Prettijohn, Becker, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 227 ).

Production History

The date of the casket is uncertain, but since DGR and Siddal made it together, it has to be earlier than 1862.

Pictorial

“The form of the casket recalls the larger and much more elaborately decorated St. Ursula reliquary in the St. John's Hospital at Bruges”, which DGR visited on his trip to the continent with Hunt in 1849 ( Treuherz, Prettijohn, Becker, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 227 ).

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
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