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Messenger Box
(Renaissance Europe )
This box, carved and tooled with an overall vegetal motif, is mounted with iron bands which have openings for straps. Messenger boxes were bound like this for added security. Once locked and sealed, the box could have been strapped onto a saddle.
The leather was boiled ("cuir boulli" in French) to be made malleable enough to be fitted over a form (here a wooden box) and stamped more easily.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Léon Gruel, Paris; Henry Walters, Baltimore, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Germany (Place of Origin)
Measurements
4 x 10 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (10.1 x 26 x 12.1 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
73.17