Travelling trunk
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1720
Materials
Pine carcase, lined with leather, brass studs, escutcheon and handles
Measurements
68 x 128 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127788
Summary
A brass-studded and decorated leather dome-lidded travelling trunk, English, probably London, circa 1720, with a pine carcase decorated with brass studs in a pattern of tulips, foliage and scrolls, the ends fitted with carry handles, the corners and edges with brass straps, with pierced crown terminals to the front and trefoil-shaped terminals to the sides. Traces of blue silk beneath the terminals. The elaborate engraved brass escutcheon topped by a pierced crown. One of three leather trunks [NT 1127726 and NT 1127784] at Hardwick Hall of a type made both for members of the Royal Family, and for courtiers and those holding offices of state in the 17th and 18th centuries. All three were made for Charles Compton (1698 - 1755), brother of the 5th and 6th Earls of Northampton and father of the 7th and 8th Earls, who was Consul (1727 - 1742) and Envoy Extraordinary (1742 - 1745) at Lisbon. They came to Hardwick via the marriage in 1782 of Lady Elizabeth Compton, heiress of the 7th Earl of Northampton, to Lord George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington of the second creation (1754 - 1834).
Provenance
Made for Charles Compton (1698 - 1755), brother of the 5th and 6th Earls of Northampton and father of the 7th and 8th Earls, who was Consul (1727 - 1742) and Envoy Extraordinary (1742 - 1745) at Lisbon. They came to Hardwick via the marriage in 1782 of Lady Elizabeth Compton, heiress of the 7th Earl of Northampton, to Lord George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington of the second creation (1754 - 1834). Recorded as at Hardwick in 1903. By descent until, following the death of Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (1895 - 1950), Hardwick Hall and its contents were accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death duties and transferred to the National Trust, in 1959.
References
Rowell, Christopher, 'Furniture at Hardwick Hall - II', in David Adshead and David Taylor, Hardwick Hall: A Great Old Castle of Romance (2016), 173 - 5 Hawkesbury 1903, Lord Hawkesbury, Catalogues of Portraits at Compton Place and at Buxted Park, in Sussex (1903), p. 6