Object number
53/252/1-10
Collection
Description
This wooden chest contains 1 large, 2 medium, and 5 small drawers, plus 1 cupboard in the middle. It has a hinged door and four round feet; there is an inlaid wood design of a bird on the door. It is thought to have been used to hold medicinal herbs, and it possibly dates from the time of Charles I.
Physical description
1 spice chest: wood; brass handles and keyhole
Archival history
MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Standard museum name: // Accession number: // Classification: // Negative number: // Acquisition method: // Acquired from: // Date: // Store: // Condition: // Recorder: // Date: // Description: // Dimensions: // Associated information: 'Spice cupboards, small rectangular pieces, provided with a door and fitted with drawers, owe their name to the probable suggestion that many of them held herbs and simples. They could also have been used for a variety of other purposes, though some of the smaller corner cupboards may have served a similar function. Such pieces were, in effect, the medicine chests of our fore-fathers' domestic economy. Obtainable examples of spice-cupboards usuall date from the second half of the seventeenth century, or later' // References:'English Cottage Furniture: 'F Gordon Roe (Phoenix House Limited, London).' //
Production date
1600-01-01 - 1699-12-31
Production period
Seventeenth century
Object name
Material
Associated subject
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_14478.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_14479.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_14480.tif - High resolution image
