Ca.1710 Early 18th Century English Oak Coffer / Chest

Description

This beautifully patinated 300 year old frame and panel coffer lends a sense of history to any room. The plank … more This beautifully patinated 300 year old frame and panel coffer lends a sense of history to any room. The plank board top is wonderfully warped and time worn. The case is constructed with pegged mortise and tenon joinery. There is evidence of several different brasses being attached to the drawer fronts with the last being round turned 19th century style wooden knobs (now lost). The chest retains a period lock (no key) and what appears to be the original chased brass escutcheon in a late 17th century style which is almost identical to examples on William and Mary chests dating from the 1680s. The raised panel chest was built with 2 drawers on the bottom once separated by an interior divider at the bottom of the main well compartment below the lid. These drawers and the separator were removed at least a century ago and a wood plank was screwed and nailed into place to hold the raised panel drawer fronts in place using old slot head screws and some rose head hand forged nails. Three of the bottom boards of the chest were also replaced likely at this same time in the 19th century with repurposed shipping crates for cubed sugar (cubed sugar branded on the bottom of these boards facing the ground). These later boards can be seen in one of the interior pictures with the original hand planed smooth boards being seen next to the rougher boards with arched saw marks from a post industrial revolution circular saw mill. As the raised panels shrunk over the centuries within their frames, some split at their glue joints and exposed the interior of the trunk to the ingress of dust. Likely during this same campaign of alterations in the 19th century, pages of an old english publication were pasted over the cracks to keep out dust and it seems that cloth may have been nailed to the underside of the lid as well. These alterations add to the charm and history of the piece. The excellent patina of the wood and the impressive scale of the chest make it a statement piece capable of providing a lot of storage for bulky items. less