Muniment chest
Category
Furniture
Date
1500 - 1600
Materials
Oak, covered in sheet iron and bound in metal-straps, black-painted; the interior painted in colours
Measurements
65 x 148.5 x 62 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127984
Summary
A rare black-painted, iron-covered and iron-bound oak muniment chest, or strong-box, 16th century, probably English. The exterior bound with iron bands, and fitted with four keyholes, one of the hasps lacking, one end with an additional lock. The lock mechanism to the interior an unusual, long sliding bolt. This chest with the interesting addition of paintwork to the interior of meandering foliate scrolls in white and blue, all centred on a central lozenge topped by a Duke's coronet of three strawberry leaves, above a pair of initials, possibly 'P.D.', or possibly 'E.H.' all against a salmon pink ground. Possibly one of the many 'trunckes', 'standards' or 'iron bound chestes' mentioned in the Hardwick Hall inventory of 1601. According to a previous inventory, this chest was once used as storage for coal.
Provenance
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), 167