Chest
Category
Furniture
Date
1600 - 1650
Materials
Cedarwood
Measurements
400 mm (Height); 900 mm (Length)
Place of origin
Italy, Northern
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 347759
Summary
Cedarwood chest, the front and sides displaying mythological figures, ships and soldiers. A similar chest at the V&A museum (item number O135902) is described as: ‘Small cypress wood chest decorated on the front and sides and interior with intaglio panels and penwork. Cypress (Cupressus spp.) grows naturally through the eastern Mediterranean, and has become naturalised in many parts of southern Europe, especially Italy where Cupressus sempervirens L. is the most important variety. The trees are very long lived. The wood is moderately hard and smooth-textured, highly durable fragrant, qualites that caused it to be highly regarded among Italian furniture makers. John Gerard's, Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes (1633) describes cypress as '...hard, sound, well compact, sweet of smell and somewhat yellow, almost like the yellow Saunders, but not altogether so yellow, neither doth it rot nor wax old...shavings of the wood laid among garments preserveth them from the moths: the Roisin killeth Moths, little worms, and magots.' Its reputation for longevity and protection of expensive textiles resulted in high prices for cypress furniture, as documented in English records of the 16th and 17th centuries. See Adam Bowett, Woods in British Furniture-Making 1400-1900 : An Illustrated Historical Dictionary (2012), pp.282-3.’