A wooden box with a hinged lid, varnished to a dark mahogany colour. The surfaces have decorative carvings. In each corner, a figure representing a character from Shakespeare's plays stands in an alcove. On the side of the box facing the viewer, a coat of arms is carved on the centre panel, with medallions either side embossed with Shakespeare's entwined initials. On the lid, a portrait of Shakespeare in a decorative oval in the centre is flanked by two smaller shields carved with his birth date of 23 April 1564 and death date of 23 April 1616.

Casket carved in an elaborate Elizabethan style

William Perry

1866

Oak

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington

Image credit: Image courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

In 1864 the heiress Angela Burdett Coutts paid the highest price then recorded for a 'First Folio' of Shakespeare at auction - £716 and 2 shillings (approximately £42,000 in today's money).

William Perry gave her this casket as a home for her prize. It is carved from the wood of ‘Herne’s Oak’ supplied to him by Burdett Coutts's friend, Queen Victoria. This time, a 'Shakespearean tree' encloses a work by Shakespeare himself.

The carving deliberately recalls the visual language of the First Folio, and it replicates the so-called 'Droeshout portrait' of Shakespeare from its title page. However the primary reference point is to The Merry Wives of Windsor: each of the four niches are occupied by characters from that play, surrounded by oak trees and ivy.

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A Treatise on the Identity of Herne’s Oak Shewing the Maiden Tree to have been the Real One

William Perry

1867

Treatise on Herne's Oak

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Queen Elizabeth Viewing the Performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Theatre

David Scott (1806-49)

1840

Queen-Elizabeth-Viewing-the-Merry-Wives-of-Windsor.tiff

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