{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O79002"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O79002/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM2095/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM2095/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AM2095","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JW2856","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA3029","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O79002/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O79002","accessionNumber":"W.31-1933","objectType":"Panel","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>During the Tudor period heraldic motifs and mottoes were often incorporated into the interior and exterior decoration of a building.  Craftsmen exploited the motifs for their intrinsic decorative qualities, although it was the information that they conveyed about the status and wealth of the owner that was most important.  This panel would have originally formed part of a richly painted and gilded scheme of carved wall decoration. Four heraldic panels survive.<br><br><b>Places</b><br>Maenan Hall, Caernarfonshire, was a late 15th-century timber-framed hall belonging to Conwy Abbey.  Sir David Kyffin, a wealthy cleric, took possession of the house after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the later 1530s and made it his family seat.  He undertook some alterations before his son Maurice Kyffin transformed the house in 1582. It was probably Maurice who commissioned the heraldic panels,  to display his status and allegiance to the Queen, Elizabeth I (ruled 1588-1603).<br><br><b>Design & Designing</b><br>During the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) legislation was passed relating to the use of armorial devices.  In order to ensure that they used the correct forms, carvers and painters are known to have owned and consulted pattern-books.  Unfortunately, no such patterns survive.  However, there are surviving royal records of arms and heraldic beasts, for example, those by Sir Thomas Wriothesley (died 1534), Henry VIII's Garter King of Arms.  These records would have been used to give advice to painters involved in the decoration of the royal palaces.","physicalDescription":"On a light blue ground argent, a chevron gules between three pheons, that is base pointing in chief; as supporters two grotesque lions painted red, the claws gilt.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved and painted oak","categories":[{"text":"Royalty","id":"THES48899"},{"text":"Heraldry","id":"THES257728"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006AM2095","2017JW2856","2017KA3029"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"58B","id":"THES49237"},"free":"","case":"CA5","shelf":"","box":"15"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Panel","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Wales","id":"x29337"},"association":{"text":"carved","id":"AAT53149"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1550","earliest":"1545-01-01","latest":"1554-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"after 1720","earliest":"1721-01-01","latest":null},"association":{"text":"restored","id":"AAT53742"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"130.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"2.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Measured; 11/01/1999 by NH","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"W.29, 30, 31, 32- 1933 purchased from Miss A E C Snee of Bowes Park, London N22 for £7 7s (RF 33/4772). Condition: cracked, painting and gilding much worn. Repaired in Royal College by Professor Tristram's assistant, who removed later paint from all four panels.)\r\n\r\nNotes from R.P. 4772/1933\r\n\r\n11 November 1933 letter Miss Snee to the British Museum\r\ndescribes three \"curiosities\" that she saved from the dustman when her furniture was sold.  She encloses sketches and dimensions and enquires as to their value with an eye to selling them to the Museum.\r\n\r\n28 November 1933 Minute of Ralph Edwards\r\nreports on his inspection of the carvings.  He dates them from the middle of the 16th century.  Though the carving is crude, he finds the animal decoration and the painting \"of considerable interest\" and \"unlike anything in our collections\".  He imagines they formed part of an exterior scheme of wall decoration.\r\n\r\n2 December 1933 H C Smith Minute \r\ndescribes the 4 panels as from the period of Henry VIII.  Though somewhat crude in execution \"they have a strangely marked character which gives them a certain air of distinction\".  The Royal arms of Henry VIII  and the private \"coat\" (as yet unidentified) add to their interest.\r\n\r\n5\tDecember 1933 Brackett Minute\r\nReports on the observations of Professor Tristram's assistant who said \"that the painting is undoubtedly original and, although extremely dirty, would come out quite bright when cleaned\".\r\n\r\nAs Miss Legge is in very reduced circumstances it is proposed that the Musem offer her more than the £5 she is willing to sell them for.  (In the end they are bought for £7.)\r\n\r\n26 February 1934 V & A research (CM query - does this relate to W.30 or another, W.29, 31 or 32??)\r\nshows that according to Papworth the impaled coat on the carvings should be described as:\r\nArms of Kiffen (including the lion rampant counterchanged of Einion Efell, Lord of Cynllaeth, lving 118(?) - 91, son of Madoc, last Prince of Powys Fadoc).\r\n\r\n27 January 1934 letter Maclagan (Christchurch, Oxford) to Clifford Smith\r\nlists several possibilities for the indentity of the Kyffin family bearing the coat-of-arms on the panel.  One possibility is Sir David Kyffin (Canon of St. Asapl's in 1537) a noted pluralist.  He had a son Maurice who built Maenam Hall apparently noted for \"quaint heraldic carvings\".  Maclagan speculates that perhaps \"Sir David, the Canon, was the owner of the two pieces of wood in question, and that he commemorated the marriage of his ancestor in 1230 by impaling the two coats instead quartering them as he himself did…\"  He further speculates that \"perhaps the two pieces of painted wood were abandoned by the Kyffins on moving into Maenam Hall when it was built\".\r\n\r\nComparable carved and painted panels discovered at Plas Maenan c1906, now held by the National Library of Wales at Aberystwith.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oak panel with the arms of Kyffin, Welsh, ca. 1550, restored after 1720","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Christopher Hussey, Maenan Hall, Caernarvon, in Country Life, 9 Feb 1961, pp.280-283; suggests that the panels came from Maenan Hall."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"W.A.Thorpe, 'Monsters and Minstrelsy from a Welsh House', in Country Life Annual, 1954, pp.174-179; argues that the panels came from Plas Maenan, near Conway\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Richard Bebb, <i>Welsh Furniture 1250-1950: A Cultural History of Craftsmanship and Design</i> (Saer 2007), pp.205-7, figs.327 and 328"}],"production":"repainted after 1720","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nThe Tudor monarchy provided opportunities for ambitious families all over England and Wales to gain political power and status. Maurice Kyffin, appointed Sheriff of Caernarvon, Wales in 1579, was able to rebuild the Medieval house, Maenan Hall, Caernarfonshire in 1582 with lavish plaster and wood-carved decoration. This wainscot panel probably decorated the great hall at Maenan.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["W.31-1933"],"accessionNumberNum":"31","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1933,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN2242","2019LR2690","2019LV5678"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-25","recordCreationDate":"2003-03-27","availableToBook":false}}