Casket

Probably an unknown French collection, August 23, 1871 [1];

Probably an unknown Dutch collection, by 1909 [2];

With Blairman, Ltd., London, on joint account with Koopman Rare Art, London, by 2003-2004 [3];

With Koopman Rare Art, London, after October 2010-2011 [4];

Purchased from Koopman Rare Art by the Chitra Collection, London, 2011-by May 2025 [5];

Purchased at their sale, Noble and Private Collections, Including Property from the Earl of Home, Sotheby’s London, May 22, 2025, lot 165, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2025.

NOTES:

[1] An inscription on the underside of the figural group, “23 Août 1871,” may indicate a date of presentation to an owner.

[2] A Dutch import tax mark, used between 1859-1909, appears on the lower rim of the casket’s back side. See Emile Beuque, Dictionnaire des poinçons officiels français & étrangers, anciens & modernes de leur création (XIV^e siècle) à nos jours (Paris: Imprimerie C. Courtois, 1925), p. 311, no. 2760.

[3] According to Martin Levy, in an email to William Keyse Rudolph, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, July 9, 2025. Blairman, Ltd. offered the casket to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2003, but it was returned.

[4] According to Timo Koopman, Koopman Rare Art, in an email to Rudolph, July 11, 2025. The casket was offered at Nineteenth Century Furniture, Sculpture, Ceramics, Silver and Works of Art, Sotheby’s New York, October 26, 2010, lot 36, by an unknown consignor, but failed to sell.

[5] According to Evelyn Earl, Assistant Curator, Chitra Collection, in an email to Rudolph, July 9, 2025. Per the Chitra Collection’s online dossier (https://chitracollection.com/about/), the collection is owned by the N. Sethia Foundation, “a charity founded by Nirmal Sethia in 1995, which supports medical research, the arts, youth activities and disaster relief management.” Sethia began the collection in 2011 with the goal of assembling the world’s greatest collection of tea wares.