Boxes often keep things safe; Anna Silver’s are no different. She created this box as a reliquary, storage for sacred objects and relics, used in faiths like Christianity and Buddhism. Reliquaries invited pilgrimage and devotion, sometimes drawing in visitors from far distances. The decorative elements on the vessel’s sides resemble medieval stained-glass windows and heraldic shields that might have been found in chapels alongside a reliquary many centuries ago. Silver’s ceramic containers often hold contemporary relics, used as cremation urns—though this one remains empty

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