RELIQUARY: 1996: Ash/red deer antler bone. 9½" x 9½ x 17½" high.
(Photograph in the 1996 Scottish Artists and Artist Craftsmen Exhibition catalogue - Held at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh)
£510 (postage and packaging is £20 within UK)

Reliquaries are an important item in shoring up faith. They usually contain dubious bits of bone or items associated with saintly persons. There was a huge trade in such religious artefacts that developed early in Christian history. Most other faiths have similar containers and contents. The more lavish the receptacle the more weight that could be attached to the contents.

An example of this is the Monymusk reliquary which was said to contain bones of St Columba. The reliquary was reputedly used as a battle ensign of the Scottish army - an irony if ever there was one. It would seem, to me, that  the whole idea of any religious faith is that it does not need reinforcement by material things. Some might even say that reliquaries are idolatrous. 

In a secular age the importance attached to objects that have belonged to important or famous people holds great sway. People pay vast sums for items worn by their favourite football player or music star. The worth of the objects is purely psychological.

This box was made with the bone (red dear antler) on the outside and is influenced by the Lewis Chess men and Inuit carvings using whale bone, which has a lovely porous quality. The construction uses an unusual technique that I developed called 'stepped mitring'. I was playing around with lots of off cuts from a previous job and wondered if I could make a box by stacking lots of mitred layers together. Each layer is also sewn to the next using upholstery twine. This represents the St Andrew's cross. The box ascends to the figure.

The box has a painted ply bottom. There is nothing inside the box.

The symbol on the back of the chair is early Christian and associated with baptism.

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