A late 16th century Anglo-German oak, beech and fruitwood parquetry and marquetry-inlaid 'Nonsuch' chest, circa 1580


With boarded cleated lid, the boarded sides of dove-tailed construction, the front with a pair of applied architectural arcades, each with a pediment, and enclosing a marquetry design of slender towered buildings, all against a profusely parquetry-inlaid ground, each side with an iron bail-handle framed by further banded parquetry, on later bracket feet, the interior with a lidded till over two small drawers, all with chequer-banded inlay, with key, 123.5cm wide x 58.5cm deep x 67cm high, (48 1/2in wide x 23in deep x 26in high)
|Although the decoration on this chest is characteristic of 16th century German inlay, it is now thought to have been made in London, particularly around Southwark, from the second half of the 16th century, probably by immigrant German joiners and inlayers. The architectural decoration is popularly assumed to represent Henry VIII's celebrated Nonsuch Palace, Surrey, particularly with reference to the fanciful towers. However, it is more likely to have been derived from 16th-century printed designs, for example those published by Hans Vredeman de Vries, (1527-1604).Literature:Comparable examples illustrated, Percy Macquoid, The Age of Oak (1925), pp. 120 - 127, colour pl. VIII, figs 103-105; Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (1995), p. 356, Fig.3:358; Margaret Jordain, English Decoration and Furniture of the Early Renaissance 1500 - 1650 (1924), p. 267, figs. 374 & 375; and Oliver Bracket, English Furniture Illustrated, p. 92, fig. 26, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, [342:1, 2-1905].