'Kentish Gothic' or Imported? Understanding a Group of Tracery-Carved Medieval Chests in Kent and Norfolk
Canterbury. 148 x 83 x 66cm. The chest is intact. Two later iron strap hinges of different lengths have been added. Front to back central batten over bottom is missing. Battens added under lid and across the outside of the back at top and bottom. Two later 17th-century type locks and signs of former hasps and staples for padlocks. The chest has a dark brown stain; some red stain or paint remains in the recesses of the carved façade.
Faversham. 163 x 93 x 72cm. Only the lid and façade (with apron) remain; they are now attached to a pine structure. The lid has four later battens and is now attached by three modern iron strap hinges. Two later rectangular locks have been fitted to left and right of the original lock recess. The red stain in the recesses of the carved façade is very clearly visible. Brown stain on lid.
Litcham. 148 x 76 x 66cm. The rear stiles have been replaced and the applied grids are incomplete and/or have been repaired. Strengthening battens have been added to lid, back and front. The hinges have been replaced. The lock plate is later but in a rectangular 15/16th-century style. The chest has dark brown stain.
Norwich. 133 x 87 x 62cm. (Gressenhall No. L1974.29.3) The chest is intact except for the base of the rear left stile which has been replaced by a narrow batten fixed to the side of the chest. Two lidded lockers replace the original till boxes; only the lid remains of the right hand locker. The lid has an added batten and the right hand cleat is loose. The chest does not have applied grids, but has had a later rail (now missing) dove-tailed to prevent the right hand side from splaying apart. The lid still has its original knuckle hinges; the right hand hinge is loose. The lock is later but made in the original concave-sided style. Signs of a former hasp and staple for a padlock. The chest has brown stain.
Rainham. 160 x 88 x 72cm. The chest is intact but side aprons were added after 1887, the date of the engraving in Fig. 7. Later timber has been added to the rear stiles. The back has later vertical and horizontal iron straps and straps passing underneath. There are very old (original?) iron brackets at the corners. The lid is abraded and is now on two long, later, internal strap hinges; iron surface straps have been added to strengthen it. There are small inserts to the façade and right hand lid cleat. Five buttresses have been replaced and re-fixed with nails; one buttress is now loose. The lock plate has been replaced by a metal cover. There are filled keyholes of later locks. There is no sign of colour; the chest appears to have been cleaned.
Wighton. 136 x 66 x 58cm. (Bundock, 2012) The lid and hinges are later and six of the eight buttresses are missing There is an insert in place of the lock plate. The feet of the stiles and lower part of the apron have been cut off, reducing the height. Both till boxes are now missing. John Stabler reports (September 2014): ‘resembles the Litcham chest but the bottom 8 inches or so has been sawn off, the lid had been replaced with a plain pine one, and the hinges changed, no signs of applied grid fixings’.18
acknowledgements
Thanks to Ian Tyers, Daniel Miles and Martin Bridge for their dendrochronological analyses; Edward Bundock, Jan Chinnery, Norbert Nussbaum, John Stabler, Sheila Sweetinburgh, Charles Tracy and Karl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel for their advice; and Stanley Denham and Sharon Keenor (St John’s Hospital), Anthony Oehring (Faversham), Sophie Towne and Joshua Giles (Norfolk Museums Reserve, Gressenhall), Alan Vousden (Rainham), Kerry Walpole (Litcham) and Elizabeth Boardman (Brasenose College), for access to chests. The author is grateful to Karl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel for permission to reproduce Figs 22 and 23, and to John Stabler for Fig. 6; all other photos are by the author.
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endnotes
1 Chinnery’s typology treats features such as lid shape, the presence of legs and plinths as secondary; they are given more importance by Eames (1977, 108-180) who uses the term hutch for this type of chest. Geddes (1999, 32) uses the term stile chest, close to the German term stollentruhe.
2 They do not appear in his list of ‘late medieval chests’ which have ‘long been recognised as of Continental origin’ (Tracy 2001, 15).
3 The preceding list of ‘movable goods’ suggests the chests were used to store church plate, altar and other cloths, a latten cross and censor, and mass books. Thanks to Sheila Sweetinburgh for this reference.
4 There are diagonal holes in the front upper corners of the stiles at Norwich only. These are also found on the Dersingham chest and the lid of the Buxted ark. Their purpose is unknown: it could be for concealed pegs for additional security, or for tying down when being transported.
5 Roe (1902, 43) suggested that the back of the Rainham chest was also inward-sloping but this is a misunderstanding, perhaps based on the 1887 engraving – see Fig. 7.
6 The chronologies are continuously evolving as more samples are taken: t values reflect the prevailing state of research.
7 The date refers to when the timber was felled, after which two years is usually allowed for seasoning for oak of 5cm thickness as in these two chests, to provide a terminus post quem for the date of construction (Miles 2006).
8 Ian Tyers (pers. comm., October 2016)
9 This is based on the author’s current research on this group.
10 This drawing does not show the tapered cross-section shape of the stiles of the six chests.
11 A groove for a high shelf was also present on the Boughton Monchelsea chest, discussed below, which suggests that the idea extended later to Flanders (Christie’s 1999).
12 The V&A chests were acquired in Germany. For Tracy they are Continental imports from the Low Countries or Germany (2001, 15-16).
13 Thanks to Jan Chinnery for her detailed notes on this chest (pers. comm., November 2015.)
14 Another solution would have been to use pin hinges which would not obscure the carved design; this is still a subject requiring research.
15 The combination of tracery and quatrefoil carving on the façade may also be distinctive, but research on English chests does not allow us to say so yet.
16 Postan describes these two decades as ‘normal years’, very favourable for exports; Baltic timber arriving in England cost twice its cost in Danzig, whereas by the 1430s it cost ten times as much (1987, 203).
17 The Sedlescombe and Wittersham chests mentioned earlier, which have slightly different façades, show that other workshops made related chests. Likewise, the great variation in the ironwork of the domed standard chests show that they were produced in many workshops (Pickvance 2015).
18 All Saints, Wighton, was rededicated in 1412 which may be related to the acquisition of the chest.
Fig. 1 Chest at St Mary of Charity, Faversham.
Fig. 2 Chest at St Margaret’s, Rainham.
Fig. 3 Chest at St John’s Hospital, Canterbury.
Fig. 4 Chest from St Margaret’s, Norwich (now at the Norfolk Museums Reserve at Gressenhall).
Fig. 5 Chest at All Saints, Litcham.
Fig. 6 Chest at All Saints, Wighton.
Fig. 7 Chest at St Margaret’s, Rainham. Source: Pearman (1887).
Fig. 10 Stile showing horn-like indentations, Canterbury.
Fig. 9 View of side showing lid construction (and repair batten), Norwich. 018
Fig 8 Stile showing tapered section, Norwich.
Fig. 12 Internal shaping, Norwich.
Fig. 11 Internal shaping, Canterbury.
Fig. 15 Replacement lock plate of original shape, Norwich.
Fig. 14 Side view showing inward-sloping front and side with applied grid, Canterbury.
Fig. 13 View underneath showing supporting battens and pegs fixing apron, Norwich.
Fig. 17 Example of mortised knuckle hinge with flange out of mortise, Norwich.
Fig. 16 ‘Bites’ showing two of original four positions of mortised knuckle hinges, Faversham.
Fig. 20 Lid decoration, Litcham.
Fig. 19 Lid decoration, Rainham.
Fig. 18 Lid decoration, Faversham.
Fig. 22 Detail of arcading showing colour, Canterbury.
Fig. 21. Detail of arcading showing colour, Faversham.
Table 1 Results of dendrochronological studies of the Faversham and Canterbury chests
|
Date of analysis |
Best fitting chronology6 |
Est. felling date range |
Est. date of construction7 |
|
|
Faversham |
2007 |
Southern Vistula, (Poland, south of Gdansk) t=5.37 |
1390-1420 |
|
|
Canterbury |
2015 |
Pomerania (Northern Poland, west of Gdansk) t=6.8 |
1400-1419 |
1402-1421 |
Source: Tyers (2007), Bridge and Miles (2016).
Fig. 23. The ‘late Luneberg’ construction type. Source: von Stülpnagel (2000, 234).
Fig. 24. Designs of lid carving on North German chests. Source: von Stülpnagel (2000, 139).
