THE LYMORE CASKET

Dimensions: 12.5 x 10.5 x 7 cm

Date assembled & painted: 2025

Details: Within its slanted roof and gilded trim, The Lymore Casket holds not only the memory of Lymore House, but another vessel—smaller, darker, and pierced by a damaged bronze crucifix. It is a reliquary within a reliquary, a shrine folded into itself. The outer form evokes ceremonial arks and sacred architecture, yet its posture is quiet, declarative, and unresolved.

The timber, once part of domestic walls, now bears the weight of ritual. Gold edges trace its silhouette like liturgy, while the crown-like adornments suggest a forgotten sovereignty—one of labor, grief, and reclamation. Inside, the embedded crucifix—fractured, oxidized—anchors the work in rupture. It is not symbolic. It is wound.
This casket is not a container. It is a consecration of what remains. A shrine to shelter, fracture, and the sacred persistence of form. It has been hand-painted in oils by Venetia Higgins who took inspiration from medieval reliquary boxes and medieval church ceilings.