A SILVER casket believed to have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots has arrived in the region on loan.
It was acquired by National Museums Scotland in 2022 and will be at the Kirkcudbright Galleries until April.
The historic item is part of a display telling the story of Mary during her early life in France and Scotland when she is believed to have possessed the casket.
Councillor Maureen Johnstone has welcomed it and said: “We are thrilled this wonderful object has come to Dumfries and Galloway. The region’s connection with this fascinating Queen is a strong one, not least because Mary spent her last night in Scotland at Dundrennan. “It is exciting to know that the casket now sits just a few miles from that evocative location.”
Made in Paris, between 1493 and 1510, the casket is an extremely rare work of early French silver.
It is thought it was given to Mary by her first husband, François II of France, and came to Scotland with her in 1561 after his death. Her inventories from this time list multiple examples of precious jewellery and other such valuable objects.
It is believed that this is the casket which played a dramatic role in Mary’s downfall when, in December 1568, a similar casket was produced at a hearing ordered by Elizabeth I against Mary at Westminster.
This contained what have become known as the Casket Letters: love poems and letters, allegedly from Mary to her third husband, the Earl of Bothwell, implicated them both in a conspiracy to murder her second husband, Lord Darnley.
Dr Anna Groundwater, principal curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History at National Museums Scotland says it’s ‘one of Scotland’s national treasures’, adding: “This extraordinary casket has been venerated as a relic of Mary, Queen of Scots for centuries, and I’m delighted that visitors to Kirkcudbright Galleries have the opportunity to see it up close.
“Beyond its connections to one of Scotland’s most famous figures, it is a rare and spectacular piece of historic silver in its own right.”
