Two §50,000 Coffins.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 324, 12 December 1888, Page 3

Two §50,000 Coffins.

In Boston nothing is held to be too good for a genteel corpse. Two coffins," jusb now in process of construction by a local manufacturer— to be used some day by a granddaughter of the Baron yon Wurtemburg and her husband — will not cost less than .$50,000 apiece. They are- made of mahogany, seven inches thick, carved . in bold relief with the most elaborate ; ., designs. All of these are in some manner emblematic of death. On the. panel a spider — itself symbolic of the grim destroyer — has caught the fly at Jasfc in a web &o delicately executed that you fear to breathe upon it lest it blow away. In, another .place a griffin's claw supports a human skull from a fracture in which a lizard is crawling. StilLanothev panel shows ' an owl in the act of capturing a mouse! and\ so on, the intention being to express the idea' , that; death comes soon or late tq every living thing. " On the top of each coffin* is carved a coat-of-arms, , and e f ver,y available inch of ■ the interior 'is "beautified" by the" cutting' ' tools. - Inside those superb , caskets s\vung x two silken hammocks^ fo t r the event- ' f ul reception of the Barons' grand-daughter ' and her spouse. , They are not dead yet,' be - it> understood. Quite otherwise. s ß,ufc,V having no end of money, they wish to die, regardless of expense. A. $125,000, mauso.loum' in a local cemetery t will serve aa a receptacle for the costly boxes,- ♦Boston Budget,'