Casket
Category
Furniture
Date
1650 - 1840
Materials
Ebonised wood, ebony, mosaic plaques of hardstones and semi-precious stones including Verde antico, Giallo antico, lapis lazuli, jasper, agate, chalcedony
Measurements
200 x 470 x 380 mm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 534186
Summary
A pietre dure rectangular box, Rome, circa 1840, in ebony and ebonised wood, mounted with plaques of Florentine pietre dure mosaics inlaid "a commesso" with various hardstones, the top with a rectangular plaque centred by a medallion with a bouquet of flowers surrounded by produces from the four seasons, the four sides with plaques depicting hunting scenes with hounds, the front plaque with hounds chasing a boar possibly seventeenth century, on a stepped base. In her Biography of the Lucy Family, Mary Elizabeth (1803-1890) reports that this box was purchased by George Hammond Lucy (1789-1845) in Rome in May 1842:"The casket panelled with fine ancient Florentine pietra dura he got for 224 piasters; it now stands on the centre table in the Library" (1862).
Provenance
Acquired by George Hammond Lucy in Rome in 1842. Presented to the National Trust by Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy (1896 – 1965), two years after the death of his father, Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, 3rd Bt (1870 – 1944), with Charlecote Park and its chief contents, in 1946.