20 
Land & Water 
July 25, 1918 
A Lost Art : By G. C. Williamson 
IN the Louvre, in; the 
riritish Museum, and in 
the Pier}x>nt Morgan col- 
lection in New York arc 
certain wonderful pieces 
o{ "^carved woodwork which 
merit consideration ;is they en- 
shrine examples of minute 
carving almost unequalled in 
skill and dexterity. 
There are a few detached ex- 
amples of the same work to be 
seen in the museums of Vienna, 
Cologne, and Copenhagen, and 
in a few private collections such 
as that of the Duke of Devon- 
shire ; but the finest examples 
of all, and ' those which are 
illustrated in our pages, were 
obtained at enormous cost by 
the eminent American collector 
to whom we have just made 
allusion. 
The objects are of ecclesiasti- 
cal character, and consist for 
the most part of large rosary 
beads of boxwood, intended to , ^ •,. 
adorn as terminal beads, a costume rosary, and on a portrait 
in the Brussels Museum, ascribed to Christopher Amberger 
and' belonging to the very eariy sixteenth century, there is 
depicted an old man, 
with a long, white, 
silky beard, telling 
his beads, and passing 
through his fingers 
the beads of a rosary 
terminated by a large 
sphere within a silver 
chased cover, very 
similar indeed to an 
example now in Mr. 
Morgan's possession. 
The origin of these 
beads was Flanders. 
It seems to be possi- 
ble that originally the 
work was English, 
because in Clement 
Armstrong's treatise 
Boxwood on The Staple of this 
Realtne, circa 1520, 
he speaks of such fine 
carving in boxwood balls carried on in Kent, and sustaining 
30 or 40 men in a village as a handicraft, but goes on to 
grumble, in his own peculiar fashion, at the industry having 
been carried to Flanders, actively adopted there, and, in 
consequence, having perished in England. 
The examples of this wonderful work which have survived 
are certainly Flemish, as can be proved in more than one way. 
Many of the 
inscriptions, or 
detaclied words 
upon them, are 
Flemish, and 
even where there 
are quotations 
from the Bible, in 
Latin, they are 
not found exactly 
corresponding to 
the Vulgate but 
from a local and 
Flemish version. 
Furthermore, on 
the only example 
on which are 
quotations from 
the fathers, we 
find, in addition 
to St. Bernard 
and St. August- 
ine's words, sen- 
tences from 
Guerriccus 
■' IK 
^ff; 
% 
Diptycji of Larvcd iioxwooa 
Representing the Nativity and the Mass of St. Gregory 
that these beads, shrines, 
Rosary 
Bead of Carved 
(closed) 
it 
Rosary Bead of Carved Boxwood 
Representing the Way of the Cross and the 
Abbas, a father whose works 
were the subject of special at- 
tention at that time in Flemish 
religious homes. 
These extraordinary objects, 
the carving in which repre- 
sents a veritable tour-de-force, 
must not be regarded as mere 
toys or trifles. They are works 
of art reduced to infinitesimal 
proportions, but the conception 
of which is remarkable. A Bel- 
gian authority writing about 
them says: "their firmness 
and freedom of execution gives 
the impression that the artist 
had the power to produce the 
same object on a far larger 
scale." 
Their decoration also is 
always serious, never relaxing 
into frivolity, another evidence 
of their close connection with 
all Flemish religious art, stolid, 
serious, and dignified. 
It has been suggested, with 
some show of probability, 
- --. and diptychs were put on sale 
at"somTnotabTe Monastic house, or place of special sanctity, 
for wealthy pilgrims to purchase and take home as souvenirs. 
Jt is possible that 
commissions for exe- 
cuting them may 
have been accepted. 
The t)uke of Devon- 
shire's Paternoster 
Bead certainly be- 
longed toHenry VIII., 
and has his name and 
arms upon it. By 
the king it was given 
to Cardinal Wolsey, 
and from thence its 
history is clear and 
well defined. The 
Mass of St. Gregory, 
which appears on one 
leaf of our diptych, 
is its principal adorn- 
ment, and in archi- 
tectural details it is 
thoroughly Flemish. 
The diptych in question, with quotations from the fathers, 
which, at length, we were able to trace and identify, belonged 
at one time to the Royal House of Spain, while the Shrine 
with the Crucifixion, and having below circular panels repre- 
senting the career of Samson, was at one time a treasured 
possession of fhe Hapsburg House. 
Only one example in all Europe is signed ; we know little of 
their makers or 
origin, and we 
move too fast in 
these days for 
any such slow, 
painstaking work 
to be remuner- 
ative. They re- 
present a lost 
art of the very 
part of Belgium 
now under the 
foot of the Hun, 
and the monastic 
houses from 
whence they 
sprang and 
which many 
of them adorn- 
ed, have now 
perished for 
ever and been 
covered by the 
wild confusion of 
war. 
Medallion, representing the Feast of 
Ahasuerus 
(open) 
Crucifixion 
