Circular box with drop-on lid, of oak and beech, the top carved with concentric bands of ornament, the centre set with a loose knop.

Circular box with drop-on lid, of oak and beech, the top carved with concentric bands of ornament, the centre set with a loose knop. The box is made of oak that is steamed and formed into a circle, the ends attached with chain stitch rows set in shallow channel. The oak base is set within the sides and attached with trennails (wooden nails). The base is composed of two boards, each showing sapwood as well as heartwood, with worming in the sapwood.The sides of the lid are similarly made, the panel on the top of beech, carved with shallow, formal ornament. It is made of two boards, joined by two hidden dowels, now visible because of shrinkage.

This object was part of a group purchased from Sigríður Magnússon (nee Sæmundsen), who campaigned to improve education for girls in Iceland. Her husband was Eiríkr or Eiríkur Magnússon, an Icelandic scholar who was Librarian at the University of Cambridge and also worked with William Morris. Nominal file.

It was the designer William Morris, then an adviser to the South Kensington Museum (the predecessor of the V&A) who encouraged curators to buy Icelandic woodwork and textiles. He admired the use of formalised motifs of leaves and scrolls, and used similar formalisation of natural forms in his own designs.

709&A-1888