{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O167447"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O167447/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GY8679/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GY8679/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014GY8679","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HB1648","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HB1695","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU0848","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O167447/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O167447","accessionNumber":"W.23-1922","objectType":"Writing cabinet","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"From about 1660 in Britain, a new design of writing cabinet became fashionable. It consisted of a stand supporting a separate cabinet that was fitted with drawers and compartments for papers and writing materials, and a hinged 'fall' front that provided a writing surface when opened. More fashionable examples supplied by cabinet-makers were decorated with new styles of marquetry or attractively figured veneers. Plainer examples, like this one, made by a joiner in oak, had simpler geometrical ornament created from glued mouldings, and eye-catching spiral legs to the stand.\r\n\r\nThis object is on loan to Sewerby Hall.","physicalDescription":"Writing cabinet on stand, with geometric quatrefoil mouldings. \n\nThe rectangular cabinet with falling front held on twin iron brackets and fitted with a lock (modern) and brass escutcheon. The fall front has been fitted with a hinged panel that can be raised as a writing slope, propped on a wire support, and faced with tooled and gilt brown leather (modern). The interior of the cabinet is fitted with 7 pigeon-holes, above 11 drawers with brass knob handles, and a central cupboard fitted with a lock (modern) containing 3 further drawers with brass ring handles, with an open compartment below. With a cornice and waist moulding of ogee and ovolo [check] form. The back plain, with five nailed oak boards (vertically grained). The sides are also plain. \n\nThe 11 drawers of oak, dovetails, with mitred mouldings on the front; the three inner drawers of oak, nailed with plain fronts. The cupboard door with an octagonal moulding, with a brass escutcheon. The small drawer at bottom right fitted with three square compartments, presumed for ink bottles, and a long narrow compartment for pens.\n\nThe stand has a single deep drawer with twin geometrical quatrefoil motifs, fitted with a lock (modern) and brass escutcheon, with two brass handles plates (both pulls and one circular pull mount missing); standing on five single bine spiral turned legs united by five flat stretchers (four of them of bow form), on turned feet. The drawer dovetailed at the front, nailed at the back, the bottoms (four oak boards, grained front to back) nailed up; the sides with a deep groove for the drawer supporters. The drawer lined with dark paper. The stand fitted with two drawer supports, and two nailed battens below the drawer compartment. The top of the stand covered with four softwood boards, nailed down.\n\nConstruction\nOf joined construction, the back boards nailed. Applied mouldings (glued). \n\nModifications\nInfill sections to the sides where the fall front hinges have been replaced. Canvas glue strips underneath the main drawer bottom","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"}],"techniques":[{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"},{"text":"Joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"","id":""}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, with turned and carved legs, brass knob handles and locks. Modern tooled and gilt brown leather. ","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Writing","id":"THES261995"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2014GY8679","2014HB1648","2014HB1695","2017JU0848"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SewerbyHall","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"FWK3","id":"THES49462"},"free":"","case":"KEYS","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"SEWH","id":"THES263401"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Keys","id":"x47941"}],[{"text":"Stand","id":"AAT139745"}],[{"text":"Drawer to stand","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer inside cabinet","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1680-1700","earliest":"1680-01-01","latest":"1700-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Douglas Eyre Esq, in memory of his father and mother, Henry Richard and Isabella Catherine Eyre, of Shaw House near Newbury. ","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"153.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1922","earliest":"1922-01-01","latest":"1922-12-31"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"96.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1922","earliest":"1922-01-01","latest":"1922-12-31"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"48.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1922","earliest":"1922-01-01","latest":"1922-12-31"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Given by Douglas Eyre in memory of his parents, Henry Richard and Isabella Catherine Eyre of Shaw House, near Newbury, Berkshire. (RF 22/1658). This cabinet belonged to the Eyre family in Berkshire, who had been Lords of the Manor of Landford and had, since at least the 17th century, owned properties in Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Essex.  \r\n\r\nOn loan to Kew Palace 1948-2005.\r\n\nThe decorative use of geometrical mouldings, as seen on this writing-cabinet, was in wide use from about 1630 (though their first use in England is much earlier, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth); its use here c1680-1700 appears to indicate a rather old-fashioned survival applied to a relatively new form. The design of the stand (in terms of spiral-turned legs and stretcher) is more characteristic of the 1680s.\n\nThis object is currently on loan to Sewerby Hall.","historicalContext":"A writing cabinet on stand was a fashionable piece of furniture in late 17th century England, based in form on much earlier continental cabinets on stand, and with a drop front. Three early examples were supplied to Ham House in the 1670s, one built into the fittings of the library by joiner Henry Harlow 1672-4, in cedarwood on oak; another freestanding example in burr-elm veneers with ebony on oak c1670-75; another freestanding example on spiral turned stand, veneered with parquetry of kingwood, with silver mounts. The form was relatively short-lived, being superceded by about 1700 by smaller desks in the form of a large box with hinged front on a table or kneehole chest of drawers, which could be extended into a larger, two-stage bureau-cabinet, by the addtion of an upper section with twin doors.","briefDescription":"Oak writing cabinet with falling front, on stand with one drawer and spiral legs. English, late 17th century.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tara Hambling and Catherine Richardson, A Day in Early Modern England: Material Culture and Domestic Life, 1500-1700 (New Haven and London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press, 2017), fig.114, p.155"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.23-1922","W.23:2-1922","W.23:3-1922","W.23:4-1922","W.23:5-1922","W.23:6-1922","W.23:7-1922","W.23:8-1922","W.23:9-1922","W.23:10-1922","W.23:11-1922","W.23:12-1922","W.23:13-1922","W.23:14-1922","W.23:15-1922","W.23:16-1922","W.23:17-1922","W.23:18-1922"],"accessionNumberNum":"23","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1922,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-10","recordCreationDate":"2008-09-24","availableToBook":false}}