Enclosed dresser
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1630
Materials
Turned, carved and joined oak, iron
Measurements
125 x 423 x 75 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Sizergh Castle, Cumbria
NT 998165
Summary
A joined oak enclosed dresser, or bin, North of England, circa 1630. This extremely unusual piece of furniture was shown in photographs in Country Life in 1906 and 1950 with a superstructure of a raised shelf with moulded edge and scroll-cut and leaf-carved apron, raised on five Doric columns. Shown in these two publications in the Banqueting Hall, with pewter and other wares displayed on and beneath the shelf. The blocks fitted behind each of the hinged slopes were probably fitted to prevent the lids falling backwards and disturbing whatever was displayed on the raised shelf. There is a similar example, with a front of entirely fixed panels, at Bolling Hall in Bradford, Yorkshire, 60 miles from Sizergh Castle. Surviving old peg sites above and below the lines where the pairs of doors meet suggest that the front of this dresser was once formed solely of fixed panels and, therefore, that the doors and door hinges are later. Now with a flat shallow top with a low gallery to back and sides above four hinged slopes, that on the extreme left above three fixed panels; the three on the right each above a pair of paneled doors. With shaped aprons and stile feet. The sides paneled. The left end of the piece is formed at an angle, probably to accommodate a door. Later 'graffiti' carved to the fixed rail between the two left-hand slopes: names, and the dates 1757 and 1894.
Provenance
Photographed in the Banqueting Hall in Country Life in 1906 (with upper tier). Given by Henry Hornyold Strickland (1890 – 1975) with Sizergh Castle and its estates in 1950.
Marks and inscriptions
To rail between two left hand hinged sloping covers: Carved with names and the dates '1758' and '1894'
References
Sizergh Castle, Country Life (June, 1906), Vol. XIX, No. 495., p. 944 Country life. 1897-, 1950, Vol. CVI.