Chest
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1560 - 1600
Materials
Marquetry and parquetry, oak, bog oak, holly, sycamore, ebony, iron carrying handles and escutcheon
Measurements
65 x 122 x 57 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Packwood House, Warwickshire
NT 557653
Summary
An oak, marquetry and parquetry chest, probably English, often referred to as a 'Nonsuch' chest, circa 1560-1600 . Inlaid with sycamore, holly, bog oak and ebony, the hinged lid with twin banded outer borders creating rectangles, the front edge of the lid with lozenge and dot detail, the front with a row of gabled dormer windows to the upper and lower friezes, with a pair of geometric and chequer panels centred by pairs of towers with flags atop, flanked by trompe l'oeil three-tier towers also with flags atop, raised on a plinth with bun feet, the sides also banded and with iron carrying handles, the edges with exposed dovetails.
Full description
The name 'Nonsuch' is a nineteenth century invention, arising from the fanciful comparison between the marquetry steepled buildings on these chests with Henry VIII's Palace of Nonsuch at Cheam in Surrey, now long gone. However, similar elaborate marquetry work on dove-tailed chests appears on furniture from South Germany, based on designs published by Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527-1604) and the Strasbourg cabinet-maker Jacob Guckeisen (d.1600). This resulted in a longstanding debate about the origins of these chests. It is now thought that many were indeed made in England and specifically in Southwark which lies on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite the City of London. Joiners working here were mostly immigrant Protestants from Germany and Holland fleeing persecution in the 1560s and 1570s, but were highly skilled. There are two other similar chests in the National Trust collections, one at Montacute House in Somerset (NT 597474) and one at Melford Hall in Suffolk (NT 926516), although they both have additional architectural pediments affixed to the front. Related, but superior and larger, inlaid architectural chests of a similar date but most probably German, can be seen at Hardwick Hall (NT 1127742) and at Southwark Cathedral (The Offley chest).