Casket attributed to Diego de Çaias commemorating Henry VIII capture of Boulogne sur Mer from the French in 1545.
A potentially important 16th century damascened casket depicting Henry VIII's campaigns in northern France comes for sale in Barcelona on May 23.
The iron and gold inlaid dome-lidded casket is attributed by Templum Fine Art Auctions to Diego de Çaias, the celebrated Spanish armourer who served at the Henrician court from 1542-47. Consigned from an “noble family from Toledo”, it carries an estimate of €1m-€1.5m (£860,000-£1.3m).
"Apparently, this casket was given as a wedding gift by the Tudor court to Phillip II and Mary I 15 years after Henry VIII's death," Guillermo Vidal, cataloguer and auctioneer at Templum tells ATG.
Measuring 8in (20cm) wide, the chest is adorned with 12 different scenes of a fortified cities surrounded by an army of foot soldiers, cavalry and cannons, thought to relate to the two sieges of Boulogne sur Mer (1544-46). In what was the largest continental land grab by an English monarch since the Hundred Years War, the siege resulted in the brutal depopulation of the local Boulonnaise and the arrival of English settlers.
The chest is adorned with 12 different scenes of a fortified cities surrounded by an army of foot soldiers, cavalry and cannons.
Although short-lived (the territory was effectively rescinded in 1550) at the time Henry VIII’s conquest was commemorated in triumphal paintings displayed at the Palace of Whitehall and by a series of paintings commissioned by Sir Anthony Browne in 1545 for Cowdray House in Midhurst. Templum says the scenes to its casket closely follow the Cowdray House paintings that, although lost to fire, are known through engravings.
Diego de Çaias worked for the French court from 1535-42 before moving to London. A similar casket, decorated with hunting scenes formed part of the Waddesdon bequest to the British Museum, while a sword and scabbard also made to commemorate the capture of Boulogne sur Mer from the French in 1545 is in the Royal Collection. The latter, decorated with similar scenes, is thought to be one of the items described in the inventory of the Henry VIII's possessions taken after his death in 1547 as 'iij longe woodknives ij of them of Dego his makinge'. Having left the royal collection before the 19th century, it was acquired by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966.
