Completed Double Casket Carcass dedicated to the 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen's passing

My original plan on this date, the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's passing, was completion of the entire casket exterior...... I'm still pleasantly pleased to be at a point where the casket carcass is complete and ready to mount the embroidered panels in the next year. Below is a front view of the double casket covered with Holbart archival paper......the current plan is to mount the doors/hardware once the embroidered side and door front panels are in place.

The double casket configuration has two hinged lidded compartments. When the top compartment tray is removed the space underneath is large enough to store a vintage mother of pearl toilet set and matching letter opener. The lower compartment is riddled with hidden storage drawers behind faux removable walls. Two silk velvet pincushion pillows boast Satsuma buttons from my button collection. Two front cubbies are lined in silk velvet and edged in metallic bobbin lace in fact almost everything is edged in gold metallic bobbin lace, you can never have enough lace!

Also stowed are mother of pearl thread spools, a netted miser purse, gaming chips, an ivory tambour hook, parasol needle keep a Sherri Jones (Patrick's Woods) design and a vintage velvet cornucopia shaped pin keep.....I've probably forgotten something!

In the front view above, the drawer fronts symbolize Jane Austen's canon, Sense and Sensibility (S&S), Pride and Prejudice (P&P) and Mansfield Park (M&P). The long bottom drawer is a pattern, of my own design, symbolizing an ink bottle and quill pen. All drawer fronts were completed in a wrapped flat silk thread technique on 4-ply card stock typical of 17th century caskets. This project is a marriage of sorts between the 17th century when caskets were a popular school girl pastime (although it's thought some may have been professional/commercially available from bookbinders where caskets were a portion of their business), the turn of the 19th century (Jane Austen's time period) and current 21st century. I chose color palates for the drawer fronts from first edition book spines, below are photo's of  Emma and Pride and Prejudice taken during the 2016 JASNA AGM Library tour of Goucher College.

Above, the silk velvet panel can be removed revealing a set of three more 'secret' drawers representing, Emma, Northanger Abbey (N A) and Persuasion (P). Inside the drawers are small odd 'trinkets'. A crystal perfume bottle and mint tin from Mt. Vernon within S&S and M&P respectively. P&P has mother of pearl gaming chips and a wonderful set of 3" Elizabeth and Darcy wood dolls I commissioned from Eric Horne in the UK. Eric is known for his handmade historically accurate wood dolls.... I was surprised to find I was the first to ask for Elizabeth and Darcy dolls! Although immodestly attired note they are fully jointed.......

And the last picture is of my 'clean' slate frame...... a teaser. Rough outlines are of 11 panels which include the casket top, sides of the upper hinged lids and the interior of the front doors. All should be complete later this year. The second mounting of my frame will be the lower back, side panels and exterior doors, which are scheduled for 2018....