{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O58837"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58837/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM3014/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM3014/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AM3014","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM3013","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AL5303","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O58837/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O58837","accessionNumber":"W.16:1, 2-1995","objectType":"Writing box","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>Portable writing boxes were widely used before the introduction of large, fixed desks later in the 17th century. They were placed on a table or on the lap. Similarly profuse chip-carved ornament is found on other writing boxes of the same period.<br><br><b>Trade</b><br>These boxes were probably sold plain and then ornamented to suit the purchaser. The decoration could be executed by a professional carver or by an amateur. This example is the work of a professional.<br><br><b>Design & Designing</b><br>The carving has been carried out with a chisel and gouge. This type of carving is found on Northern European furniture from the 16th century onwards. Geometric borders were comparatively easy to carve and provided effective decoration.<br><br><b>People</b><br>Richard Cromwell was an unwilling successor to his father. He ruled for less than a year, a period of chaos and uncertainty, and abdicated in May 1659. After the Restoration he lived abroad as John Clarke, but returned to England in 1680. <br><br>The lid of the writing box is carved with the arms of the Commonwealth as borne by Richard Cromwell. Their presence suggests that he used the box himself.<br><br>","physicalDescription":" A portable writing box of a type widely used before the introduction of large fixed desks later in the 17th century. They were placed on a table or a lap. Decorated with chip-carved ornament with the arms of the Commonwealth as borne by Richard Cromwell ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"chip carving","id":"AAT54091"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Chip-carved oak","categories":[{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"British Galleries","id":"THES48985"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Medieval and renaissance","id":"THES271264"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006AM3014","2006AM3013","2006AL5303"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"56D (VA)","id":"THES49242"},"free":"","case":"CA3","shelf":"","box":"12"},{"current":{"text":"56D (VA)","id":"THES49242"},"free":"","case":"CA3","shelf":"","box":"12"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Writing box","id":""}],[{"text":"Drawer","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1659","earliest":"1659-01-01","latest":"1659-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the grandchildren of Lady Gomme","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"18","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"41.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"30.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Measured; 04/02/1999 by dw","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Carved with the arms of the Commonwealth as borne by Richard Cromwell","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8877"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Carved in England by an unidentified craftsman. This box was made for Richard Cromwell (1626-1712), son of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). After his father's death in 1658 he was briefly Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. Boxes like this were usually sold plain and then decorated to suit the purchaser. The carving has been carried out with a chisel and a gouge.\r\n\r\nDesk, gift of Mr & Mrs Tony Gomme, grandchildren of Lady Gomme\r\nNotes from R.P. 31/1096, 31/11600, 95/1550\r\n\r\n28/10/31 letter Lady Gomme to Mr Wace\r\nasks his advice re \"an old carved oak desk dated 1659…with Oliver Cromwell's arms.  The desk is in fairly good condition - one inside drawer has gone and the old lock…\"  She wonders if a museum would be interested.  She thinks it genuine but only knows what she was told by Edward Sully FRS 40 years ago.  It has been in the Gomme family for years and years and was once shown at the Jeffrey Museum.\r\n\r\n9/11/31 letter Lady Gomme to Mr Wace\r\nincludes thanks for referring her to Mr Brackett regarding \"our old desk\".\r\n\r\n11/11/31 letter same to same\r\nsuggests Aylesbury might like her \"O.Cromwell desk if it turns out to be genuine and a fairly good article\".\r\n\r\n12/11/31 Brackett letter to Lady Gomme\r\nexpresses interest in seeing the desk.\r\n\r\n16/11/31 Minute paper by Ralph Edwards\r\nreports on his inspection of the desk.  He finds it similar in style to the box in the Museum dated 1648.  The desk is dated 1659 with Cromwell's arms over the Royal Arms of England.  It was exhibited at the Geffrye Museum (which wanted to retain it).  It was left to Lady Gomme by her husband and she wishes to loan it to a museuml.  Edwards saw nothing to make him doubt it belonged to the period; Lady Gommes has known it for 60 years.\r\n\r\n17/11/31 Mr Van der Put\r\nreports on the heraldry.  The desk bears the arms of the Commonwealth as borne by Richard Cromwell (Oliver died in 1658).\r\n\r\n17/11/31 Brackett\r\naccepts the loan of the desk.  Lady Gommes replies 19/11/31 that she is pleased to offer it but must await the consent of her sons before it is sent to the museum.\r\n\r\n12/2/31 Lady Gommes\r\nwrites to say she is ready to send the desk.\r\n\r\n3/12/31 H. Smith and O. Brackett\r\nsupport acceptance of the desk as a loan as it is a \"very interesting piece of English Furniture\"…\"an interesting and unusual object\".  Both express the hope that it will ultimately be given.\r\n\r\n23/12/31 Lady Gommes\r\nwrites to report her sons' consent to the desk being on loan to the V & A and she agrees that the desk must be associated with Richard, not Oliver, Cromwell.  She has no information to the contrary.\r\n\r\nLater correspondence dated 1995 relates to the conversion from loan to gift.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Desk box, oak, English, 1659","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Apollo Magazine</i>, Roe article, March 1937"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"DESK BOX\r\n\r\nOak decorated with chip-carved ornament and coat of arms of  Richard Cromwell, dated 1659  \r\nGiven by the grandchildren of Lady Gomme \r\nW.16-1995  \n\r\nThe desk lid is carved with the coat of arms of the Commonwealth  as borne by Richard Cromwell (1626-1712) and the date 1659. In January 1659 Richard briefly succeeded his father 0liver Cromwell,  who died in September 1658, as Lord Protector. However, he retired  in May 1659 when the army again seized power. The following year, Charles II was restored to the English throne.  The chip-carved ornament was probably executed by a professional  carver.\r\n\r\n RECENT GIFT TO THE DEPARTMENT  OF FURNITURE AND WOODWORK \r\n A MID-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CHIP-CARVED DESK-BOX \r\n \r\n The desk-box on the top shelf has been on loan to the Museum since 1931. However, it has only recently been formally added to the Museum°s collection, when the grandchildren of the original lender, Lady Gomme, generously converted the loan into a gift in 1995. It is  displayed here with a comparative desk-box similarly decorated.  \r\n\r\nPortable desk-boxes were used before the introduction of larger writing-desks and were either placed on a table or on the lap. An  important early example, covered in painted leather, dates from 1525-7. It bears the coat of arms of Henry VIII and the heraldic badges of his first Queen, Catherine of Aragon. This can been seen in the British Galleries, Room 52.  \r\n\r\nBoth these boxes date from the period around the English Civil War, though their original owners were on opposite sides of the political  divide. Desk-boxes were personal accessories and the coat of arms of  Richard Cromwell on the earlier desk-box of 1659 (top shelf) suggests  that he used this himself. The later example dated 1665 (lower shelf)  may have celebrated the proposed union of Royalist and Puritan families in marriage. It later belonged to a Miss Amelrosa Cobbold of  Blythburgh, Suffolk who bequeathed it to her relative F. Gordon Roe,  former editor of Connoisseur magazine. He published the desk-box in  English Cottage Furniture (1949) and gave it to the Museum in 1955. \r\n\r\n Chip-carving decorates both desk-boxes. Such decoration was executed  with a chisel and gouge and is found on Northern European furniture  from the sixteenth century onwards. Motifs were often inspired by  church carvings and popular symbols. The geometric borders around  the sides of these boxes were comparatively easy to carve and provided  effective decoration. It is probable that the boxes were sold plain and  decorated to suit the purchaser. Thus they could have been decorated  by a professional or an amateur carver.        ","date":{"text":"ca.1995","earliest":"1990-01-01","latest":"1999-12-31"}},{"text":"DESK BOX\r\nOak.\r\nENGLISH; dated 1659\r\n\r\nPortable writing-boxes were widely used before the introduction of large fixed desks later in the century. They could be placed on a table or on the lap. Similarly profuse chip-carved ornament is found on other examples of the same period and it has been suggested that the boxes were sold plain and ornamented by the purchaser.\r\n\r\nThe arms are those of the Commonwealth, as borne by Richard Cromwell (1626-1712). Oliver Cromwell's eldest son, Richard, briefly succeeded his father as Lord Protector in January 1659, but he retired in May when the Army again seized power.\r\n\r\nLent by Lady Gomme","date":{"text":"06/1989","earliest":"1989-06-01","latest":"1989-06-30"}}],"partNumbers":["W.16:1-1995","W.16:2-1995"],"accessionNumberNum":"16","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1995,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Writing box","Drawer"],"assets":["2019LN1348","2019LN2501","2019LP9475","2019LR5207","2019LU5806","2019LV7644"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-15","availableToBook":false}}