German Engraved Iron Casket, Musée de Cluny, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in iron gray and black, lettered "COFFRET en fer gravé d'Allemagne, (XVIe SIÈCLE.) Musée de Cluny, No 1667. Grandeur de l'original: haut. 10 cent. long. 15 cent. larg. 7 cent." The casket, lettered A, is shown whole at the top: a rectangular box on four turned feet with a riveted lid and a looped carrying handle. Its front is engraved with two arched panels, a lady in a long gown at the left and a man playing a lute at the right, each framed by scrolling foliage on a stippled ground. Below, lettered B, are the two end panels, one with a young man standing with his hand on his hip and the other with a man playing a fife, both in sixteenth century dress beneath similar arches.

The running head reads "LE MOYEN-AGE ET LA RENAISSANCE." and "FERRONNERIE PL. V." (ironwork, plate 5). The credits are "H. Soltau del.", "Chromolith. Engelmann et Graf" and "Kellerhoven lith.", with "F. Séré direxit" at the foot. In English the caption reads: Casket in engraved iron from Germany (sixteenth century), Musée de Cluny, No. 1667. Size of the original: height 10 cm, length 15 cm, width 7 cm.

Paul Lacroix, known also by his pen name the Bibliophile Jacob, edited Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance with Ferdinand Séré as director of the plates. The five volumes appeared in Paris between 1848 and 1851 and cover the customs, crafts, sciences and arts of medieval and Renaissance Europe, each chapter illustrated after objects then held in public and private collections. The present plate comes from the fourth volume of 1851.

The plate can be framed on its own or hung in a small group with other plates from the work.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.