Coffin letter (1700-1800's)

These coffin letters are part of the Royal Library’s collection of coffin letters, which contains about 900 coffin letters and about 200 in new prints. Coffin letters are simple hand-colored single-leaf prints, mainly wood cut, which were often pasted into the chestlocks, originally possibly in protective, later solely for decorative purposes. Kistebreven was printed in the 18th century and until the mid-19th century in Sweden, among others in Lund, Växjö, Jönköping, Karlskrona, Karlshamn and Varberg. The motifs were mostly biblical and moral, but historical and folkloristic motives also appeared, as well as portraits of kings and queens.