{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O321268"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O321268/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EA8024/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EA8024/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EA8024","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE6018","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KL2517","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O321268/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O321268","accessionNumber":"W.15-1920","objectType":"Coffer part","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Chest front formed of four oak planks (laterally grained) joined together, carved with scenes of the Adoration of the Magi (top left), the Coronation of the Virgin (top right), the Angel appearing to the shepherds (centre right), the Annunciation within an architectural arch (bottom right), and with a lock plate reserve (top, centre).","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, carved","categories":[{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2010EA8024","2006AE6018","2017KL2517"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"B","id":"THES304843"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"B","id":"THES304843"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chest front","id":""}],[{"text":"Panel","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1400-1420","earliest":"1400-01-01","latest":"1420-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"73.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"main panel","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"127","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"main panel","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought for £100 'wormeaten, cracked and paint missing' from Hugh H. L. Bellot Esq. DCL, the Grotins Society, 2 King's Bench Walk, Temple EC4, London\r\nRP 20/2249\r\n\r\nSaid to have been formerly in Horace Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill, but according to Tracy there is no definitive evidence for this.","historicalContext":"Tracy argues that an English origin is more likely than a Flemish, suggesting that mid-14th century English vestments could have provided the inspiration for the figure scenes, which were executed much later. \"From the dress [worn by the figures] it seems unlikely that the chest was made much before the middle of the fifteenth century.\" The carving on the base panel is compared to the decoration of a 14th century chest in Prittlewell church, Essex (ill. in Fred Roe, Connoisseur, LVIII, 1920, 45).","briefDescription":"Coffer part, English, 1400-1420, oak, carved with the Adoration, Coronation, and Annunciation","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Charles Tracy, English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork (London, 1988), cat. no. 300\r\n\r\n'Carved Chest front with lock plate reserve, of hutch-type ((P. Eames, Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century, London, 1977 p.109, FIG.17 &amp; p.145); carved with figure subjects in relief; on the left is the Visitation of the Magi, on the right the angels appearing to the shepherds, above is the Coronation of the Virgin, and below, within an arched recess, the Annunciation (PL.106).\r\nOak, About 1430-50\r\n73.6 x 127 cm\r\nMus. No. W.15 -1920\r\nPanel, probably the front of the base or stand of this chest, carved with hounds chasing a stag and a hare.\r\n17.8 x 134 cm\r\nMus. No. W.15A -1920\r\nSaid to have been formerly in Horace Walpole’s collection at Strawberry Hill, although there is no definitive evidence for this. \r\nIn the previous catalogue reference was made to a chest front formerly in the Ypres museum (Joseph Casier and Paul Bergmans, L’Art Ancien dans les Flandres, Brussels and Paris 1914, PL.XXII). This bears only a superficial resemblance to the museum's panel and serves, if anything, to underline the absence of any stylistic relationship to the latter. The similarity of the carving on the base panel to the decoration of a fourteenth-century chest in Prittlewell Church, Essex (figured by Fred Roe in Connoisseur, LVIII, 1920, p. 45) should encourage us to look for an English model. Indeed, in fourteenth-century English ecclesiastical needlework a number of stylistic and iconographical parallels are evident. Scenes from the Life of the Virgin in mid fourteenth-century vestments such as the Scrope chasuble (New York, Metropolitan Museum) and the Butler Bowden cope (V&amp;A Museum) could have provided the inspiration for our artist. For instance, the arrangement of the angels behind the panel's Coronation of the Virgin is reminiscent of the configuration of cusped arches which provide the formal framing on the Butler Bowden cope.\r\nThe Annunciation to the Shepherds on the apparels in the V&amp;A bearing the shields of Bardolf (Mus. No.8128-1863) has all the elements contained in the same scene on the panel- the angel with scroll emerging from a cloud, the gesturing shepherd on the right (the figure on the panel is damaged), the bag-pipe playing shepherd on the left, and the sheep-dog in the centre. \r\nThe carving style of the panel is much later than the embroidery examples cited. From the dress it seems unlikely that the chest was made much before the middle of the fifteenth century. Its apparent iconographical dependence upon earlier English Works suggests that it is English. However, a Flemish provenance cannot be ruled out'.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Victoria & Albert Museum: Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), no. 4.\r\n\r\nAn Oak Chest Front\r\nAmong the few types of furniture in use during the Middle Ages chests were of primary importance, serving a variety of purposes in religious and secular life. Though primitive in construction, consisting of massive boards pegged or nailed together, the finer examples were commonly adorned with carved and painted decoration. [The term 'primitive' is considered outdated owing to its derogatory overtones.] During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the fronts were often enriched with arcades of tracery, or more rarely with subjects representing scenes from romances, jousts and deeds of arms, or even scriptural incidents.  \n\r\nThis chest front has the broad and vigorous characteristics of English craftsmanship and probably dates from about 1400. On the left is the Adoration of the Magi, while the Angels appearing to the Shepherds, the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Annunciation (within an arched recess) occupy the remainder of the panel. The naive treatment of the detail adds to the charm of the decorative composition: rabbits are seen scurrying in and out of their burrows, and the guiding Star is represented amid clouds on the tiled roof of the stable. At the top is a shaped matrix in which originally the lock fitted. The chest front was purchased by the Museum in 1920.  \r\n\r\n<i>English; about 1400.  </i>\r\nH. 19 in., W. 50 in. \r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Herbert Cescinsky & Ernest Gribble: Early English Furniture & Woodwork. Vol. II. (London, 1922), p.14, fig.14"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture and Woodwork. Vol. II. - Late Tudor and Early Stuart (London 1930), no. 307, plate 42"}],"production":"possibly Flanders","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Annunciation","id":"V30"},{"text":"Adoration of the Magi","id":"V132"},{"text":"The Adoration of the Shepherds","id":"V162"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.15-1920","W.15A-1920"],"accessionNumberNum":"15","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1920,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Chest front","Panel"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-26","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}