Chest
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1700
Materials
Softwood, brass, possibly coromandel lacquer, paint, oil gilding
Measurements
77 x 141 x 64.5 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 435108
Summary
A Bantamwork chest or coffer, probably English or Dutch, circa 1700, incorporating 17th century imported lacquer panels. The hinged lid and sides incised and decorated with polychrome designs with birds, flowering plants and foliage. Mounted with pierced and engraved gilt brass lock plates.
Full description
Bantamwork or Coromandel lacquer is a type of lacquer that is incised, painted with very brightly coloured decoration and a clear lacquer applied as a top surface.This technique was used in Northern China from the 17th century onwards, mainly for export to Europe. The name is derived from The English East India Company's trading posts on the Coromandel coast of India. The technique was also known as Bantamwork in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, Bantam being the name of the port in the Dutch East Indies through which many East Asian goods were shipped to Europe. James Weedon (November 2018)
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow (b.1936) in 1984.