Saturday, 3 October 2026

Miniature early 19th century coffin with skeleton sold at Sotheby's for £3,000

A miniature black coffin with a carved bone lid, and an open coffin with a bone skeleton against red lining.

At Sotheby's this 15-centimetre memento mori souvenir from the kit of an early nineteenth-century English soldier sold for £3,000. A thoroughly disagreeable trinket, but there is no disputing about historical tastes..

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