Oak aumbry
Category
Furniture
Date
Unknown
Materials
Oak and metal
Measurements
43 ins (h)40.5 ins (w)18 ins (d)
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274771
Summary
An oak aumbry with drawer above two full width cupboards. Beading between storeys, diaper band above drawer, and rail across back of top carved with dog tooth. Panelled doors pierced and hung on iron hinges. Two doors to upper cupboard (right hand larger), one only to right hand side of lower cupboard. Brass drop handles to drawer. Brass escutcheons on upper cupboard doors, brass lock on right hand one only. On plain legs. Charlotte Shaw purchased the aumbry in 1920 specifically for Shaw’s Corner, after they bought the house. Prior to this the majority of the furniture in the house was rented. The aumbry was purchased from Speight’s Antique Gallery in Hatfield. Charlotte’s diaries record shopping trips with Shaw, and also the explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who was a friend and neighbour. Charlotte recorded in her diaries: 29 May 1920: ‘to Hatfield and lunch with W. Speight furniture dealers. Went over the house’. The sideboard (NT 1274757) was purchased at the same time.
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.