A jewel casket is a small box meant for holding jewelry, valuables, and other expensive trinkets. Such caskets are usually highly-ornamented, with various styles ranging from the velvet-covered wooden cases often favoured by the Americans to the bronze-gilt and lacquered inlay boxes that the French were famous for.
More esoteric materials such as zinc and tortoiseshell have been also employed in the making of jewel caskets – not surprising considering the vast geographical scope of manufacturers, across most of the Western world as well as in the Caribbean and other colonial locales.
Jewel caskets have been in production since the medieval period, with vast stylistic and decorative changes occurring depending on the epochs and cultural influences. The oldest surviving jewel caskets are often adorned with depictions of medieval texts and myths, making use of high-class mother-of-pearl and trellis in their representative designs.
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French jewel caskets of the Second Empire style tend to be smaller than their Victorian counterparts, and are often extravagantly decorated with gold leaf, ivory and other such fine materials. The American jewel caskets, which are mostly out of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are characteristically more austere and utilitarian in their wooden design than European caskets.
Jewel caskets come in a variety of sizes, from the small 3-inch designs to rather large 25-inch caskets.
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