Reliquary Monstrance with a Tooth of Saint John the Baptist

Art Institute of Chicago

Reliquary Monstrance with a Tooth of Saint John the Baptist

Weddeghe Velstede (German, active 1432-73)LinkedCulture matchlcp-5d901eab98ed

Date
1433; container: 900/1200
Medium
Silver gilt, rock crystal, textile, and human remains
Culture
Germany
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID
88419

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

This reliquary uses the form of a miniature Gothic tower. It makes an elaborate architectural frame for a transparent rock-crystal vessel holding a relic that is identified as a tooth of Saint John the Baptist by an inscription along the base of the reliquary. Rock crystal was highly prized in the medieval Islamic world. Considered a precious stone, it was used to create a number of luxurious secular objects, including this vessel, which was probably originally intended to be a container for fragrant oils.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Gift of Mrs. Chauncey McCormick
Provenance
The collegiate church of Saint Blaise, Braunschweig [no. 78 in the 1482 inventory of the relic treasure; see Boockmann 1997, pp. 33-34, 143 identifying it with the monstrance made for Saint Blasius by Wedegho Velstede in 1433], remaining there along with other treasure objects after the congregation abolished the Catholic service in 1540; Saint Blaise being under the direct patronage of the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, 1962.91 was given, together with the bulk of the church’s relic treasure to Duke Johann Friedrich (died 1679) in 1671 as part of a settlement among members of the ducal family [see Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 391-92]; by descent in the Hannover branch of the ducal family of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and preserved with the rest of the treasure in the court chapel of the Leineschloss, Hannover; temporarily removed for safe-keeping during the Seven Years War ( from 1757-64) and the Napoleonic Wars (removed 1803-1816) [Jaitner 1986 [1987], p. 393]; in 1862 installed in the Welfenmuseum in the Altenburg-Palais, Hannover, founded by King George V of Hannover (died 1878) [Hannover became a kingdom at the Congress of Vienna 1814/15; for the foundation of the museum, whose name evoked the medieval glory of the Welf or Guelph dynasty, see Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 393-98 and de Winter 1985, p. 13]; in 1867, following the annexation of the kingdom of Hannover by Prussia, moved with the bulk of the treasure to the exiled former king’s villa in Hietzing near Vienna; deposited at the Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, 1869 to 1906 [Jaitner 1986 [1987], pp. 402, 420 n. 59–the former king was styled duke of Cumberland];1906 sent to the duke of Cumberland’s palace in Penzing on the outskirts of Vienna and in 1920 to Schloss Cumberland in Gmunden, Austria [Jaitner 1986 [1987], p. 404]; in November 1927, the treasure was deposited with a bank in Aarau, Switzerland; at the end of 1929 under Ernst August III as head of the house of Hannover, the treasure was sold to a consortium of Frankfurt dealers: Julius Falk Goldschmidt of the firm I. S. Goldscmidt, Zacharias Max Hackenbroch, and Isaak Rosenbaum and Saemy Rosenbaum of the firm J. Rosenbaum [see De Winter 1985, p. 133; Jaitner 1986 (1987), p. 415 gives January 6, 1930 as the conclusion of the transaction]; they sold 1962.91 to Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, née Marion Deering, in January, 1931; on loan to the museum from 1931 [receipt R. 4806 of April 24, 1931 in Registrar’s office]; given to the museum in 1962.

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Object type
AAT300411548

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