Chest
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1620
Materials
Oak
Measurements
71 x 145 x 61 cm
Place of origin
West Country
Order this imageCollection
Killerton, Devon
NT 823410
Summary
A carved oak chest, West Country, circa 1620, with hinged plank top above a foliate-filled chain-like motif to the frieze, the front three panels carved with stylized sunflowers below egg and dart arcades and flanked by stiff-leaf uprights and stiles headed with cartouches containing the initials I P, unusually the lower frieze rail has a scrolling ogee outline, the sides have foliate lozenge-filled twin panels below an interlocking motif.
Full description
The attribution of this chest to the West Country is based on a number of the motifs visible here being present in examples from Somerset and Gloucestershire discussed in Chinnery, 'Oak Furniture, the British Tradition', p 414 - 419 and examples in 'Oak Furniture from Gloucestershire and Somerset', a Temple Newsam exhibition catalogue of 1976. These motifs include the chain pattern, the deeply carved egg and dart of the arcade, the foliate-filled lozenge (to the sides), the cartouches for the initials and the stiff-leaf of the uprights. In addition the profuse carving overall is quite typical of the West Country. Interestingly, the ogee scroll motif seen here on the lower frieze also appears on the lower edges of some seat rails on Salisbury armchairs (Chinnery p.408 - 413).
References
Chinnery 1979, Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (ACC revised 2016), p 414 - 419 p 408 - 413