John Sandon
Consultant
Lot 139TP
A Commonweath/Charles II joined oak and polychrome-stained coffer, Dorset, circa 1650-70
31 January 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,500 inc. premium
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A Commonweath/Charles II joined oak and polychrome-stained coffer, Dorset, circa 1650-70
Having a boarded lid, the front with three panels, each panel incised-carved with radiating tulips and then stained in shades of 'burnt umber', 'cadmium red' and 'lamp black', the front rails and extended stiles similarly carved and stained with elliptical motifs, the top rail also carved with the initials 'I L', 115cm wide x 47cm deep x 67cm high, (45in wide x 18 1/2in deep x 26in high)
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Tiger Collection
Sold Sotheby's, London, 29 October 2008, Lot 268
Exhibited:
The Merchant's House, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 2008-2018
Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (2016), p. 312, fig. 3:373a, illustrates a chest of near identical design, which is almost certainly from the same workshop. The author writes that 'the decoration of this chest is typical of a small group of chests and boxes from Dorset, some dated early in the 1650s. The designs are drawn out with a thinly incised V-gouge line, and the spaces coloured with a thin paint or stain. The red and blue-black stains are used only for accent, and much of the wood was left uncoloured'. David Knell, English Country Furniture 1500-1900 (2000), p. 52, pl. 8, illustrates another related chest, and notes that although the distinctive decoration is particularly associated with Dorset, variations have also been found in neighbouring Devon and Somerset, and as far away as the Hertfordshire/Essex border.