I came across this early sixteenth-century French ‘coffret’ earlier this week, amongst many other treasures at the 2013 Masterpiece fair . The lid is lined with a woodcut image of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, standing with the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross.

What was this box used for? It appears book-sized, as though it could have held a prayer book. But it clearly has a devotional purpose in itself, exposing a colourful image to be meditated upon. Jason has alerted me to a wonderful auction catalogue of further examples of these intriguing objects (all of them French) and I shall investigate further – though sadly, at tens of thousands of pounds each, I won’t be buying one any time soon!