Lidded casket of wood, covered with tooled leather and cut iron mounts. Fitted with a loop handle and lock (the hasp missing). The interior lined with red leather.

Rectangular lidded casket of wood, covered with tooled leather and cut iron mounts. Fitted with a loop handle and lock (the hasp missing). The interior lined with red leather.

The exterior surface of the casket is completely covered with brown, tooled leather glued over thin boards. There is no sign of this leather having been painted. The body of the casket is formed from five thin, butted and nailed boards. Along the front and sides the lid which is formed by a single board, three narrow flange strips of wood are apparently held by nails that pass through the external leather into the lid board. Along the back edge of the lid, the leather overlaps the edge of the board without a similar narrow flange strip. A plain iron strip is nailed along both sides of the lid, and there is evidence of a similar band (now missing) along the front. The casket interior is lined with glued red leather, which has been pierced at various points by the metal nails holding the mounts.

Apart from the base, which is plain leather, scored with lines to create a simple lattice pattern, the lid, front, back and sides are tooled with decorative scenes. The front, back and sides make particular use of an S-shaped serpentine creature with human head that has in the past been related to the letter S used in collars of Ss.

Lid - four vertical compartments with stippled background, framed by crocketed gothic arches topped by a trefoil finial, each containing a standing figure. The scene appears to show a couple playing ball, flanked by a musician playing while a woman dances. From left: a woman in swayback posture, possibly dancing, wearing a gown or supertunic (with very long sleeve tails) and headdress; a bareheaded man wearing a hood around the shoulders over a supertunic which reaches to just above the knees, and elongated shoes, his right hand raised (his gesture uncertain in meaning but possibly he has just thrown the ball), who bends towards a woman facing him. The woman, whose hair is dressed with stiffened plaits, and who is wearing a gown (with very long sleeve tails), raises her left hand while her right hand drops, apparently trying to catch (or having dropped) a ball in front of her knee; a musician wearing a hood over his head (the long tail or liripipe hanging down behind him), a supertunic and elongated shoes, playing on a small drum and blowing a fife or clarionet which he supports with his right hand, and with a dagger and purse hanging from a belt.

Front, with lockplate: four square compartments, two with an S-shaped serpentine creature with human head, one with a bird, one with a leaf motif (partially obscured by the lock)

Proper left: three square compartments, two with an S-shaped serpentine creature with human head, the central one with a bird looking upwards

Back: four square compartments with pointed arch, the two outer with an S-shaped serpentine creature with human head, the two central each with an eagle(?), standing and looking backwards

Proper right: three square compartments, two with an S-shaped serpentine creature with human head, the central one with a bird looking upwards.

Mounts (iron, nailed with round-headed pins)
The lid is held by two long hinges, partly square section, and partly flat, with eight leaf stylised flowers and five-leaf, pierced finials. Alongside, on the lid, are three similar, shorter bands (the central one, with a cast ring handle with five raised square sections, is partially damaged). Matching short bands reinforce the joint between both sides and the bottom (x2), the back (x3), the front (x2) and all four corners, where two short bands overlay a flat corner strip with rosette foot (one missing at the front left). The lock plate is basically recentangular with fleur-de-lis at each corner, and stylised leaf in the middle of each side. It is fixed with a mix of large nails.

A repair in the leather on the underside has been carried out with stitching at one corner.

Formerly in the collection of Ralph Bernal. It was bought by the Museum of Ornamental Art (as the Victoria and Albert Museum was then called) for £31. 10s. The collection of ceramics, glass, metalwork and woodwork formed by Ralph Bernal MP 'was reckoned to be the only English Collection which could rival the 'private "cabinets" ' of France.' (Anthony Burton, 'Vision and Accident. The Story of the Victoria and Albert Museum' (London 1999), p.34).

This casket has been considered at various times as Flemish or German, French or English. The poses, dress and hairstyles worn by the lid figures can be compared to documented fashions in NW Europe c.1350-70, but do not appear to suggest one locality. The mounts are close in style to those on caskets thought to be Nethelandish or from the lower Rhine.

Ball games in the Middle Ages are sometimes associated with love and courtship when played between a man and woman (or in groups). The physical interaction involved is more than allowed by formal courting, and while a ball game in itself could be acceptable, it might lead to something more.

Ball games played in a group of men and women may have erotic connotations, in for example the Neidhart frescoes, wall paintings of a medieval ceremonial hall in Vienna (c. 1400), that were discovered during 1979, in the course of remodeling an apartment. These illustrate some of the songs by the legendary bard (Minnesänger) Neidhart von Reuenthal. Likewise, the frescoes executed c1395 in Runkelstein Castle (near Bolzano in South Tyrol, Italy) include a scene of noble men and women playing ball, suggestive of genteel courtship.

In England, 'stoolball was played with women perched on milking stools, who tried to avoid being struck by balls bowled by men, and this social sport was played for prizes of cakes or kisses.' Compton Reeves, Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England (Stroud, 1995), p.92.

This small wooden casket is covered with thin leather sheets. On the lid the leather has been tooled with great precision and delicacy to depict a particularly vivacious scene. Under gothic arches a fashionable couple play a ball game, observed by a dancing lady and a musician.

Decorated caskets were often given as gifts in the middle ages. The scene on the lid of this one showing two elegant couples enjoying themselves suggests that it was probably a love gift, to mark a betrothal.

In 1882 a Museum guide judged that 'there are no better examples of small caskets in the Kensington Museum than this, and it deserves very careful study. The condition is nearly perfect; the bands, lock, and a small ring by which to lift up the lid are all, with one slight exception, uninjured.'

2072-1855