Chest
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1600
Materials
Cypress, brass, iron
Measurements
81.8 x 192.5 x 75 cm
Place of origin
Venice
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 206696
Summary
A cypress and penwork chest, or cassone, Venetian, late 16th/early 17th century. The lid and front decorated with Classical scenes carved in low relief and with rails carved with strapwork, foliage, figures and buildings. The interior also decorated. The ends fitted with later brass carry handles. Raised on a (probably later) moulded base rail. With extensive punch decoration throughout. -- Both the lid and the upper rail carved with the arms of Yorke - argent, on a saltire azure a bezant - so presumably this chest was the property of the Earls of Hardwicke, who owned Wimpole between 1740 and 1894. The arms to the toprail are between supporters of a lion and a unicorn, and are topped by a later-carved Earl's coronet, which was presumably added some time after Philip Yorke (1690 - 1794) was elevated as the 1st Earl of Hardwicke in 1754. The chest is decorated to the front with three scenes. One a martial scene, possibly of a siege, another of agricultural pursuits. The top carries a border filled with unicorns and angel lutists.
Provenance
Presumably the property of the Yorke Earls of Hardwick and left at Wimpole when the 5th Earl sold Wimpole in 1894. Listed in the 1965 inventory as in the Vestibule (p. 6). The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Elsie Bambridge (d. 1976) who had purchased Wimpole with her husband, George Bambridge (d. 1943), in 1938.