French Bevelled-Glass Jewel Casket, Etched Grapevine, c.1890
A French bevelled-glass jewel casket of the Napoleon III into Belle Epoque period, the small footed coffret form, wheel-cut with grapevine decoration across every panel and still holding its original silk plush lining.
Caskets like this were made in Paris and the French provinces from the 1870s through the end of the century as display cases for jewellery and wedding keepsakes, the thick bevelled glass letting the contents be seen from every side. Most survive with plain bevels. This one is cut on all five panels, the lid and four sides, with a frosted design of grape leaves, tendrils and berries, the hand-finished decoration that separates a better casket from a plain one.
The glass sits in a silvered base-metal frame with a beaded and gadrooned rim, cast foliate corner mounts and four rococo scroll feet. The base is a chased floral panel worked over an engine-turned ground. The silvering has worn and tarnished with age and the brass shows through at the hinge and the high points, as it does on almost every casket of this type and date. The hinged lid closes flush on a clasp that is still tight.
Inside is the original silk plush lining, matted and darkened to a soft gold over the years but complete.
The casket measures 90mm long by 60mm wide by 75mm high. It carries no maker's mark, which is usual for the type.
Sound and complete, and a good deal harder to find with its feet, glass and lining all intact than the plain versions that come up more often.
