German or Swiss, 1400-1450, boxwood, silver mounts; Salting Bequest

Cofferet; German or Swiss; Boxwood. Carved in openwork and fitted with silver mounts. It is lined with brocade of coloured silks and silver-gilt thread. It bears a silver shield with the arms of Traun. On the lid is a lady seated on the ground and faced by a stag: above them amid Gothic leaf work are two scrolls with inscriptions chiefly in initials. The front, one side and the back are occupied by hunting scenes with inscriptions. On the other side is the silver shield. Pieces of red and green silk form the background to the openwork panels. The lid and base project. There is a lock and hasp, two hinges and a moulded edging to the back and sides-of the lid.

Bequeathed by George Salting

Once thought to have come from Switzerland or Germany and to date from about 1400, this item and a number of similar items in public collections are now considered to be fakes, made between about 1800 and 1830 and modelled on a small casket now in the Historisches Museum in Basel, Switzerland.

From the Magniac Collection (no. 782).

The researches of Horst Apuhn have shown that what was once thought to be German or Swiss of the 2nd half of the 19th century is a fake of the first third of the 19th century.

Once thought to have come from Switzerland or Germany and to date from about 1400, this item and a number of similar items in public collections are now considered to be fakes, made between about 1800 and 1830 and modelled on a small casket now in the Historisches Museum in Basel, Switzerland. This casket once belonged to George Salting (1839-1909), an Australian collector, who specialized in paintings, engravings and Asian ceramics and bequeathed his collections to this museum in 1910.

W.118-1910