A WILLIAM & MARY BURR WALNUT CABINET ON CHEST CIRCA 1695With moulded cornice and cushion frieze drawer above a pair of cupboard doors enclosing a fitted interior with eight drawers around a further cupboard itself enclosing secret doors, the stand with arranged of drawers, the interior of one door with 18th century handwritten label describing how diamonds and other valuables were found in one of the drawers after a dream157cm high, 99cm wide, 46cm deep Provenance: Sir Edmund and Lady ProbynElizabeth Blencowe at Hayes, Middlesex, until sold Bought by Mary Barnardiston and thence by descent at Weston Hall Literature: Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, p. 33.F. Bamford, 'Weston Hall, Northamptonshire - I: The Home of Sir Sacheverell and Lady Sitwell', Country Life, 22 January 1976, p.175, fig. 4.Catalogue Note: The romantic story that surrounds this late 17th century burr walnut cabinet-on-chest makes it one of the most intriguing pieces of furniture from Weston Hall, a mansion owned by seven successive women from the early 18th-century, and, in particular, Susanna Jennens (1688-1760), who lived there from 1714 to 1760 (F. Bamford, 'Weston Hall, Northamptonshire - I: The Home of Sir Sacheverell and Lady Sitwell', Country Life, 22 January 1976, p.175, fig. 4). Formerly in the collection of Lady Anne Probyn (née Blencowe), widow of Sir Edmund, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and sister to Susanna, the cabinet-on-chest came to Weston following Lady Probyn's death in 1749. However, a year earlier, and as Susanna recounted to her companion Mrs. Welch, she had dreamt that an express arrived with an account of her sister's death, that her niece, Elizabeth Blencowe, would inherit the cabinet-on-chest, and that she would be appointed sole executrix and residuary legatee (Sir George Sitwell, A brief history of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, and of the families that possessed it, London, privately printed 1927, p. 33). In her vivid dream, Susanna was shown how to find the secret drawers in which Lady Probyn kept her most valuable jewels. When the dream came true, Lady Probyn's jewels and valuables were later given to Susanna's youngest daughter Anne Peareth (d. 1801). This cabinet-on-chest was subsequently included in the sale of Elizabeth Blencowe's furniture at Hayes, Middlesex, where it was bought by Mrs. Jennens' eldest daughter, Mary (d. 1788), who had married Arthur Barnardiston, Esq., of Brightwell Hall, Suffolk, and sent to Weston.