German, Brunswick
From the treasury of the Church of Saint Blaise
Church-Shaped Reliquary, 15th century
Gilt copper and horn
Height: 27.8 cm (11 in.)
Gift of Kate S. Buckingham, 1938.1956
Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Not on Display
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut; Berlin, Deutsche Gesellschaft; New York, Reinhardt and Goldschmidt Galleries; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art); the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Detroit Institute of Arts; The Art Institute of Chicago; and San Francisco, The M. H. de Young Museum, The Guelph Treasure, 1930-1931 (at Art Institute of Chicago, March 31st to April 20th, 1931), cat. 54.
Art Institute of Chicago, Medieval Decorative Arts from Chicago Collections, October 2, 1985-January 5, 1986.
Publication History
G. W. Molanus, Lipsanographia sive Thesaurus sanctarum Reliquiarum Electoralis Brunsvico-Luneburgicus (Hanover, 1697), no. 75.
W. A. Neumann, Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Vienna, 1891), no.69.
O von Falke, R. Schmidt, and G. Swarzenski, The Guelph Treasure: The Sacred Relics of Brunswick Cathedral Formerly in the Possession of the House of Brunswick- Lüneburg (Frankfurt am Main, 1930), p. 187, no. 54, pl. 90.
Patrick M. De Winter, The Sacral Treasures of the Guelphs, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, 1 (March 1985), pp. 127, fig. 160, and 142, no.73.
Patrick M. De Winter, Der Welfenschatz: Zeugnis sakraler Kunst des Deutschen Mittelalters (Hanover, 1986), pp. 132, fig. 148, and 174, no. 73.
Ownership History
From the treasury of the Cathedral of Saint Blaise, Brunswick (Braunschweig), where it remained until the late 16th century; by descent through the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, to Duke Ernst August II of Cumberland, before 1929; [treasury objects were brokered for sale by a consortium of dealers based in Berlin and Frankfurt: Julius F. Goldschmidt, Z. M. Hackenbroich, and Saemy Rosenbaum]; sold to Kate S. Buckingham in 1931 for $1,100 [according to curatorial files]; bequeathed to the museum upon her death.