{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O122476"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O122476/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JP2777/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JP2777/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JP2777","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2769","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2771","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2778","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2776","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2772","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2774","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2773","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP2775","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HR3338","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O122476/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O122476","accessionNumber":"833-1898","objectType":"Chest","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Chest.  The front has three panels, the centre one carved with a conventional pomegranate, the other two each with a male (right) and female (left) bust in profile.  The stiles and rails are moulded, and joined with mason's mitres; the top rail is incised with the inscription, FERE GOD T [missing initial]LOVE GOD.  The lid is fitted with four panels in a moulded framework.\r\n\r\nWith a till (proper left) missing its lid.\r\nOf frame and panel construction (pegged tenon and mortise joints), supplemented by iron brackets (hand forged, with hand-made nails) at the corners, one at rear left is thinner than the others. The lid also of panelled construction, with scratch mouldings on the exterior and stopped chamfers on the inside. 3 original split ring hinges holding the lid to the back rail, supplemented by two added butterfly hinges held on quatrefoil nails. Note that there are visible trenches in the stiles where peg holes were drilled in the mortices. The inscription on the rail (chip carved with chisels) has been interrupted with an excavated hole for a hasp lock (now missing), causing the loss of an initial, though the escutcheon appears to be original.\r\n\r\nIt appears that the front may have been removed intact and refastened, probably at the same time as the bottom boards were replaced with 7 modern tongue and groove boards; some of the pegs reused, others lost and not replaced). The PR rear lower metal bracket much newer than the others which appear to be of early date. Screws and modern nails have been added to reinforce the lid joints. The front left corner tenon is broken.  At some point a supporting sub-rail seems to have been fixed with nails between the front and rear lower rails. With an applied varnish after surface cleaning. The interior fitted (20th century) with two wires through ring fittings to stabilise the structure.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, joined and carved","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2016JP2777","2016JP2769","2016JP2771","2016JP2778","2016JP2776","2016JP2772","2016JP2774","2016JP2773","2016JP2775","2015HR3338"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"58D","id":"THES49234"},"free":"","case":"PL3","shelf":"","box":"4"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chest","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1560-1600","earliest":"1560-01-01","latest":"1600-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"65","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"124","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"50.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Rails 27-28mm; the legs 100 x 40/42mm","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"FERE GOD.T.[missing initial]LOVE GOD","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Carved in the front top rail"}],"objectHistory":"Bought for £5 from J.W. Stephens, 26, Church Street, Hereford 'damaged and portions missing', with minimal information on the RP 97507/1898\r\n\r\nThe profile heads presumably derive from printed sources, but the simplified and somewhat exaggerated carved forms may make identification of a source more difficult. Unlike most carved profile heads from the 1520s onwards, these are set within a square panel without an inner circular wreath, and in their greater distance from print sources tend to suggest a later rather than an earlier 16th century date. \r\n\r\nCescinsky & Gribble (1922): 'of archaic character,  but undoubtedly post-Reformation. Pieces of this type were frequently made by country huchers of little or no tradition, and were presented to churches ususally inscribed  with the name of the donor or the original owner. The carving extremely crude. The framing is scratch moulded and stop-chamfered, the inside muntins only being worked with a coarse ovolo section. The type appears to be Somerset of the mid-16th century' [captioned c1560]\n","historicalContext":"A chest inspired by 833-1898 was made by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson in 1928 to celebrate the marriage of John Brunton and Alice Kathleen Rycroft at St Matthew's church Halifax. It includes the couple's initials and Thompson's trademark mouse carving. Sold by Tennants at Leyburn, 2/3/2024 £8,000. (Antiques Trade Gazette, 30/3/2024 p12)","briefDescription":"Coffer, oak, English, Herefordshire (?), 1560-1600","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture & Woodwork \r\n(London 1930), cat. 563.\n\n833-1898.\r\nChest.  The front has three panels, the centre one carved with a conventional pomegranate, the other two each with a male and female bust in profile.  The stiles and rails are moulded; the top rail is incised with the inscription, FERE GOD T….LOVE GOD.  The lid is fitted with four panels in a moulded framework.\r\n\r\nLate 16th century.\r\nfrom catalogue: H. 2 ft. 2 in., W. 4 ft. 1 in., D. 1 ft. 8 in. (H. 66 cm, W. 124.5 cm, D. 50.8 cm)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Eric Mercer, The Social History of the Decorative Arts - Furniture 700-1700 (London, 1969), fig. 144"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Herbert Cescinsky & Ernest Gribble: Early English Furniture & Woodwork. Vol. II. (London, 1922), fig.46 and p.34.\n\n'Fig. 46  is a complete chest of the same archaic [Renaissance] character [as V&amp;A: 52-1881], but undoubtedly post-Reformation. Pieces of this type were frequently made by country <i>huchers</i> of little or no tradition, and were presented to churches. They were usually inscribed with the name of the donor or original owner. The carving is extremely crude. The framing is scratch-moulded and stop-chamfered, the inside muntins only being worked with a coarse ovolo section. The type appears to be Somerset of the mid-sixteenth century.'"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Roe, Fred: <i>Old Oak Furniture</i>. (London, 1908), p.153\n\n'One may occasionally meet with panelled chests bearing grotesquely-carved heads, somewhat resembling the productions of the early Renaissance, which do not, however, actually belong to a period anterior to the early part of the seventeenth century. Many good judges have been deceived by this fanciful resemblance, and at least on chest of this type may be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum wrongly ascribed to the early part of the sixteenth century. Along the top rail of these chests is invariably incised some such inscription as 'FERE GOD,' or 'GIVE TO THE POR FOR THE LORD SAKE,'  that in the Kensington Museum exhibiting the legend: 'FERE GOD + LOVE GOD +.'"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ralph Edwards, 'Chests and Coffers', in Country Life June 20th 1925, pp.978-80, fig.6 \n'The front has an incised inscription, and two of the panels are carved with profile portraits of the owner and his wife. Circa 1535' \n\r\n'Gothic and Renaissance mouldings are found in conjuction, but the conventional profile heads which originated in representations of the Saviour and Mary are entirely Renaissance in sentiment.'"}],"production":"Possibly Herefordshire","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"CHEST.\r\nOak, carved with Renaissance heads and Gothic mouldings. Inscribed FERE GOD.T.LOVE GOD.\r\nEnglish; first half of 16th century.\r\n\r\nThe heads are similar to the somewhat sophisticated examples on the Panelling from Waltham Abbey, also in this room.","date":{"text":"1968","earliest":"1968-01-01","latest":"1968-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["833-1898"],"accessionNumberNum":"833","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1898,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-03-31","availableToBook":false}}