Armoire
Category
Furniture
Date
1675 - 1700
Materials
Oak, chestnut, fruitwood
Measurements
1910 x 1880 x 560 mm
Order this imageCollection
Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
NT 1211460
Summary
A late 17th-century joined oak and chestnut armoire. Dentil-moulded cornice above two rows of paired spindles, centred by a carved male figure standing and playing a wind instrument within a niche, above a cut cupboard door to the left-hand side, a sliding door to the centre and a fixed ‘door’ to the right, all with a wheel-spindle above a row of baluster-turned spindles and a raised leaf-carved panel, over four further leaf-carved slender panels and a spindle-filled and lunette-carved base rail.
Provenance
This item of furniture is a significant survival of Oxburgh’s ‘Romantic’ interiors created during the 19th century. The 1951 catalogue of the sale of the contents of Oxburgh Hall lists four similar heavily carved, dark oak ‘cupboards’, whose descriptions match this piece. When the dimensions are compared to these lots, one lot (Lot 255) matches exactly. The existence of these four lots in the catalogue implies that the armoire was originally acquired as part of a group. We do not know who bought the armoire in 1951, but it was described by the vendor as having previously been acquired by a relative of her late husband at an auction of contents of East Barsham Manor, Norfolk. The vendor’s late husband inherited the armoire from this relative. Purchased by the National Trust for Oxburgh Hall with the help of a grant from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, 2020.