A late Gothic oak chest
Oaken chest fitted with five wrought iron bands around the lid, the central band forming the lock. The sides and front of the box with additional iron mountings, some terminating in rosette motifs. The inside of the lid fitted with two hinges on iron bands. The back and possibly also the base replaced. H 88, W 176, D 68 cm.
Lower Saxony / Westphalia, around 1600.
Caskets like this one were the luxury furnishings of their day. The opulent iron mountings served no structural purpose but were instead merely intended to demonstrate the owner's wealth. These chests were often used as strongboxes for important documents, money or valuables. They also functioned as bridal chests to hold the wedding dowry that the bride carried with her to her new home.
The old assumption that these chests all originated in Westphalia was already disproven by Otto von Falke. Heinrich Kreisel further specified that although the form did originate in Westphalia, it was soon disseminated northwards along the river Rhine from the Lower Rhine region into Switzerland, Alsace, and Lorraine. He was also able to locate examples made in Thuringia, Saxony, and Bohemia.
Provenance
Acquired from Galerie Neuse, March 1984.
Literature
Cf. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Band I, Munich 1968, p. 26 & illus. 44f.