Casket, wood with glass and moulded pastiglia decoration, Itlian, 1500-10

Soft wood decorated in relief with a paste of white lead and egg-white binder and applied against a ground sprinkled with grains of mineral of glass over red pigment Rectangular form with hinged lid and interior painted azure blue. Four squat bun feet. On top of the lid, below a winged mask a vase centred between grotesque confronting birds whose elongated tails terminate in flowered scrolls. In front on either side of a pedestal of flowers nude cherubs are teasing confronting monsters with addorsed heads on whose backs winged satyrs affront savage birds. On the back, a similar grotesque design. On each side is a winged mask above an urn, flanked by winged satyrs standing on flowers. Round the rim of the lid is a guilloche border and round that of the base a border of acanthus leaves.

V&A Science Section report (Jo. Darrah), May 1986:
A tiny sample of wood from inside the box, was identified as poplar (Populus. sp.)
Red (microscopic examination) - apparently crushed glass, possibly coloured using arsenic
Blue (microscopic examination) - apparently azurite, with copper (XRF)
Green (microscopic examination and XRF) - copper

Given by Dr W.L. Hildburgh

PASTIGLIA BOXES
Gilt pastiglia boxes were mostly made in Venice and Ferrara from about 1480 until 1550. Pastiglia or pasta is the name given to white lead paste, bound with egg white. This was often scented and described in contemporary inventories as pasta di muschio (musk paste). The pastiglia figures and motifs were shaped with a lead mould and then glued to the gilt surface of the box - hence their frequent recurrence on other boxes. The boxes are decorated with legends of Ancient Rome and the scenes copied from woodcuts such as Jacobus Argentoratensis' Triumph of Caesar (Venice, 1504) or illustrations of Livy's Roman History.
(Label text, circa 2000, from old Medieval & Renaissance Galleries)

RP: 53/1314

By about 1450, boxes decorated with scented white lead paste (or pastiglia) were fashionable throughout Northern Italy, especially in Ferrara and Venice. They were often given as love presents. This casket is decorated with grotesque creatures, probably based on popular prints, and also with scenes of classical ruins, which were a common sight throughout Italy. Most surviving boxes of this type had pastiglia motifs stuck to a patterned, gilded surface, but on this example they are applied to a ground of crushed glass, which is most rare.

W.20-1953