Casket Lid thumbnail 1
Casket Lid thumbnail 2

Casket Lid

1873 (made), 11th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Plaster cast of the lid of a casket, replicting in a single piece of plaster the original decoration in ivory, gold, gold wire and brightly coloured gems.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Plaster cast
Brief description
Plaster cast of the lid of a casket, made by Elkington & Co, Birmingham or London, 1873.
Physical description
Plaster cast of the lid of a casket, replicting in a single piece of plaster the original decoration in ivory, gold, gold wire and brightly coloured gems.
Dimensions
  • Width: 278mm (Note: Dimension taken from repro register)
  • Height: 152mm (Note: Dimension taken from repro register)
  • Depth: 25mm
Production typeCopy
Gallery label
(30.11.18)
Lid of a casket, 11th century
Elkington & Co., 1873
Casts are snapshots in plaster of the outer surface of an artwork or building. This cast replicates in a single piece of plaster the lid of a casket that is covered in a complex arrangement of ivory, gold, gold wire and brightly coloured gems. Elkington used flexible moulds of gutta percha (a treeresin) or India rubber to make casts which could reproduce intricate decoration perfectly. The original casket is one of the medieval treasures of Quedlinburg, Germany.
Plaster cast
Birmingham or
London, England
Museum no. Repro.1873-235
Object history
Cast of the lid of a casket created in 1873 by Elkington & Co in London or Birmingham. The cast is of an 11th century casket made from ivory, gold, gold wire and brightly coloured gems and is one of the great medieval treasures of Quedlinburg, Germany.
Historical context
Making plaster copies is a centuries-old tradition that reached the height of its popularity during the 19th century. The V&A's casts are of large-scale architectural and sculptural works as well as small scale, jewelled book covers and ivory plaques, these last known as fictile ivories.

The Museum commissioned casts directly from makers and acquired others in exchange. Oronzio Lelli, of Florence was a key overseas supplier while, in London, Giovanni Franchi and Domenico Brucciani upheld a strong Italian tradition as highly-skilled mould-makers, or formatori.

Some casts are highly accurate depictions of original works, whilst others are more selective, replicating the outer surface of the original work, rather than its whole structure. Like a photograph, they record the moment the cast was taken: alterations, repairs and the wear and tear of age are all reproduced in the copies. The plasters can also be re-worked, so that their appearance differs slightly from the original from which they were taken.

To make a plaster cast, a negative mould has to be taken of the original object. The initial mould could be made from one of several ways. A flexible mould could be made by mixing wax with gutta-percha, a rubbery latex product taken from tropical trees. These two substances formed a mould that had a slightly elastic quality, so that it could easily be removed from the original object. Moulds were also made from gelatine, plaster or clay, and could then be used to create a plaster mould to use for casting.
When mixed with water, plaster can be poured into a prepared mould, allowed to set, and can be removed to produce a finished solid form. The moulds are coated with a separating or paring agent to prevent the newly poured plaster sticking to them. The smooth liquid state and slight expansion while setting allowed the quick drying plaster to infill even the most intricate contours of a mould.
Flatter, smaller objects in low relief usually require only one mould to cast the object. For more complex objects, with a raised surface, the mould would have to be made from a number of sections, known as piece-moulds. These pieces are held together in the so-called mother-mould, in order to create a mould of the whole object. Once the object has been cast from this mother-mould, the piece-moulds can be easily removed one by one, to create a cast of the three-dimensional object.
Collection
Accession number
REPRO.1873-235

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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