{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O384582"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O384582/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN3889/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN3889/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN3889","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB4485","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O384582/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O384582","accessionNumber":"2077-1855","objectType":"Container","titles":[{"title":"Pyx","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Although this container was described as a reliquary when it was acquired from Ralph Bernal's collection in 1855, it seems to be made up from fragments of two different medieval objects. The skillfully-executed engraving on the foot, and worn gilding on the foot and stem contrast with the shiny gilding and cruder engraved decoration of the container itself.  Meanwhile lid, with its brightly gilded interior, appears to have been cast (unlike the container itself, which has been soldered together from strips of copper), and is probably an addition made at the same time the foot was joined to the container. The model for this composite object are probably late-thirteenth and fourteenth-century reliquaries, but the sides of these early reliquaries are usually pierced to allow glimpses of their sacred contents. The lack of any catch to secure the lid shut, and the absence of any gilding on the inside of the container also suggests this was not designed to hold relics. That said, both parts are likely to have been attached to reliquaries. The foot and stem, possibly 1300-1400 rather than 1400-1500, probably supported a reliquary. The architectural form of the container (and ungilded interior) suggest it was part of a stem that supported a reliquary, a monstrance, or was a knop incorporated into a staff or crozier.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"copper","id":"AAT11020"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"},{"text":"punching","id":"AAT235631"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AN3889","2017KB4485"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES386317"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Container","id":"AAT197197"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1400-1500","earliest":"1400-01-01","latest":"1500-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"The foot and stem may date from 1400-1500; the container and lid may be later."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"15/12/2023","earliest":"2023-12-15","latest":"2023-12-15"},"part":"Foot to top of cross on lid.","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"14","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"15/12/2023","earliest":"2023-12-15","latest":"2023-12-15"},"part":"","note":"Maximum, across underside of foot."}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Formerly in the collection of Ralph Bernal, and purchased by the Museum for £2 10 shillings.\r\n\r\nProvenance\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal’s estates who were classed by the British government as his ‘property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Copper, partly gilded, the foot France or Germany, 1300-1400; the container possibly France or Germany, 1400-1500, with alterations and additions 1800-1855.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Notin, Véronique. <u>Cuivres d'orfèvres. Catalogue des oeuvres médiévales en cuivre non émaillé des collections publiques du Limousin</u>. Limoges: Musée de l'Evêché / Musée de l' Email, 1996"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"RELIQUARY. Gilt copper; a hexagonal box, engraved with arcades, and flanked by small buttresses and pinnacles, supported on tall stem. German, 15th cent<sup>y</sup>. H. 9 in., diam. 5½ in. Bought (Bernal coll.), 2l. 10s.","date":{"text":"1855","earliest":"1855-01-01","latest":"1855-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["2077-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2077","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-01","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}