The earliest and most crude form is made of a hollowed log, one example of which is it Milton Bryant Church, Bedfordshire. The chest is banded with iron to keep its shape, and it is typical of medieval construction; an oak trunk would be split transversely and the lower section would then be hollowed out and banded; the section first removed would then be employed as the lid.
A later form was the boarded chest, composed of solid front, back and underpart, all of which fitted into ends which became the feet, thus raising it from any damp floor. Examples of these types were made until the early 17th century, although by that time the richer religious houses and the nobility and merchants were enjoying much more sophisticated items of chest furniture which developed with the growth of skilled craftsmanship and foreign influence.
Yet another type was the chest of framed panels, joined together in simple but effective case-work. This type was made for some 300 years until it was relegated to the backwaters of 'country furniture' with the emergence of chests fitted with drawers and of cabinets.
A 16th century Bishop of Chichester, worried about the effect of dampness on archives and vestments, urged the need for regular 'careful examination lest anything should perish by the boxes becoming old, or by the eating of worms, or in any other way'. The importance of boarded chests, raised above the ground on their end boards, was being given wider recognition.
The War of the Roses and the attendant unrest had fostered lawlessness on a grand scale and we have seen how Henry VII, determined to stamp this out, had taken measures to create a more ordered and peaceful life for his people. Yet old habits die hard and the very lawlessness of the age provided another reason why the church became associated with the development of case handmade furniture.
Thievery and mayhem traditionally stopped short of the church doors, and domestic chests, vulnerable to pilfering in private homes, were entrusted to the church's care. There are examples of wills specifying that legacies of valuables such as jewellery should be stores in abbeys on monasteries until the beneficiary came of age. On that date the valuables would be removed, but often the chests which had protected them would be left with the church. Thanks to careful husbandry by church officials through the centuries, these chests exist today as almost the only examples of types then in everyday use, nowadays reproduction furniture techniques are used to try and replicate similar furniture.
Boxes and chests however, were spreading beyond the domain of the church. On record is Henry VIII's passion for boxes or similar, fitted with places for small implements. An inventory of the wardrobe of Catherine of Aragon referred to a 'desk covered with black velvette and garnysshed withe gilt nayles'. Other archives make mention of many boxes.
By the early 1500s the fronts of panelled chests were being divided into two and later three sections, each panel being carved with scenes that were not always of religious origin. Designs of jousting knights for instance, might be used. As the much improving quality of muddle and upper-class life became apparent, the stock of household goods and utensils was growing, demanding special storage space.
Non fitted furniture such as chests were and obvious repository for plate but household linen - hangings, bedsheets and the richer clothes - was a factor increasingly to be considered. carved panelling known as linenfold, executed to represent folds of linen, designated the purpose of many household chests. It was also profusely employed in the panelling of choir stalls and domestic apartments and became a popular feature of interiors decoration throughout Elizabethan times.
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