Reliquary with the Tooth of Saint John the Baptist

The Reliquary with the Tooth of Saint John the Baptist is a piece from the Guelph Treasure that is owned and displayed by the Art Institute of Chicago.

A reliquary is a container that holds a relic. A relic is a part of a person, object, or natural material that is considered sacred or religiously significant. Relics may be things such as the bones of saints or holy soil. A reliquary's content is thought to give it sacred power. In Medieval Europe, reliquary objects were believed to have various powers of blessing and protection, depending on their contents. Multiple religions have been known to utilize reliquaries.
The contents of a variety of reliquaries have been attributed to John the Baptist, including arm bones, finger bones, and skull fragments. The authenticity of these reliquaries is questioned as there are some duplicates. For example, two right arms have been attributed to John the Baptist.
The Art Institute of Chicago owns a collection of reliquary objects that are displayed alongside the Tooth Reliquary, including reliquary caskets from Spain and France, along with three other objects from the Guelph Treasure.

The object is composed of three parts: the metalwork structure (called a monstrance), the rock crystal vessel holding the tooth, and the tooth itself (attributed to Saint John the Baptist). The Reliquary's three parts - metal, crystal, and tooth - were assembled at some point before 1482, as this is the year the complete Reliquary was first documented.

The monstrance is attributed to around 1375-1400 due to its Gothic architectural style. The rock crystal vessel may be a reused oil vial from the medieval Islamic world, about the 1st century CE, as it resembles vials from that period and location. The material was considered precious in the medieval Islamic world.

The tooth itself cannot be authenticated as that of John the Baptist, who was purportedly beheaded in the 1st century CE. Since then, people have claimed to own his various body parts, including his entire head. Many of these body parts are on display in various parts of the world. The identification of these body parts is further complicated by the uncertainty surrounding whether his head was initially buried with the rest of his body. Possible grave sites have been identified, but the head may have been buried elsewhere.

The Reliquary was included in the written inventory of the new Cathedral of Saint Blasius, as one piece of the Guelph Treasure, a collection held by the House of Guelph. The House of Guelph was a dynasty of German and British monarchs who ruled from the 11th to 20th century.

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Wikipedia