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A classical urn with a cloth laid over it.
Also known as: Shrouded urn, Veiled urn, Urn with cloth on a grave
The single commonest monument motif of the nineteenth century — a lidded urn with drapery across it. Also the clearest example of the pattern-book problem: it is so ubiquitous that its presence on a given stone tells you almost nothing about the family.
A classical funerary urn with a cloth draped over it, among the most frequent of all nineteenth-century monument motifs in Britain and North America.
Late 18th–19th century · Contexts: History
The urn recalls classical cremation practice, adopted as a funerary emblem in the neoclassical revival rather than because the deceased was cremated — inhumation was overwhelmingly the norm where these were carved.
The urn on a nineteenth-century grave is a classical allusion, not evidence of cremation.
The drapery is commonly explained as the veil between life and death, or as a mourning cloth. The explanations are standard in the popular literature and are not documented from the carvers or the families.
Widely repeated and thinly evidenced. Given how routinely the draped urn was supplied from catalogues, its presence is weak evidence of any specific intention.
A tall lidded vessel with a narrow foot and a wide shoulder, standing on a square plinth, with a folded cloth laid across its top and hanging down one side.
The urn-and-willow motif pairs the same urn with an overhanging willow.