A walnut/chestnut portable writing box or table cabinet, English, circa 1580-1600
REF: 5122
Having a hinged 'pediment' top with flat top formed from a removable slide, opening to reveal a vacant well, the fall front held in place with an internal stay rod, enclosing an arrangement of five drawers, concealing two 'secret' drawers, with applied geometric mouldings, working key
A comparable inlaid example, formerly in the Clive Sherwood Collection, is illustrated Victor Chinnery, 'Oak Furniture: The British Tradition' (2016), p. 334, fig. 3:429, dated to c.1560-1610. Two further examples, plain, with applied mouldings, in chestnut, are also illustrated, figs. 3:428a & 3:429a, which the author dates to circa 1675, although this slightly too late a date. A further example, dated 1570, is in the collection at Melford Hall, Suffolk (NT926575) and illustrated in Ralph Edwards, 'The Dictionary of English Furniture' (1986), Vol. I, p. 101, fig. 4.
- Height 38.3 cm / 15 "
- Width 36.5 cm / 14 1⁄2"
- Depth 26 cm / 10 "
Category
, p. 334, fig. 3:429, dated to c.1560-1610. Two further examples, plain, with applied mouldings, in chestnut, are also illustrated, figs. 3:428a & 3:429a, which the author dates to circa 1675, although this slightly too late a date. A further example, dated 1570, is in the collection at Melford Hall, Suffolk (NT926575) and illustrated in Ralph Edwards, 'The Dictionary of English Furniture' (1986), Vol. I, p. 101, fig. 4.){kind=link}