This large and intricately decorated casket, with geometrical patterns in bone and tortoiseshell, is part of a group of domed caskets of Mexican or South American origin. See comparable examples in the collection of Coll & Cortes, figures 14-17 (Marcos,
op. cit., pp. 34-35). The silver fittings with the double-headed eagle (
ibid., fig. 17) and the eight-pointed star pattern (
ibid., fig. 15) also occur in these caskets. Compare further to a pair of Spanish Colonial caskets inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, sold in these rooms on 11 December 2002, lot 23.
RELATED LITERATURE
F. Marcos, Las Artes del Nuevo Mundo, Madrid, 2011, pp. 32-35