German or English; 14th century; oak & iron

Construction
Clamped front type: the front carved with flaming foliage and tracery of moderate quality, featuring 4 bird-like monsters on the wide stiles with (at the top) a repeating pendant shield, which is inverted half way up. The front (made up from a wide plank with a narrow strip along the top) fits into the wide (stile-legs) with three horizontal tenons at each side, and is pegged in place, the pegs visible. The single long block glued along the top edge of the front hiding the uppermost tenon joint (though whether this block serves an essentially cosmetic purpose may be doubtful.) Each end piece is a single piece of oak slid down into grooves (?) cut in the legs, and held by long pegs that run into the legs. Over each end piece H-shaped end pieces of tenon and mortice construction are loosely applied. The back a single wide plank with a split across it, which is held in a rebate and pegged.
The lid needs further examination; the rear plank of the lid has been replaced in pine (?), and underneath the lid are shadow lines of missing hinges or battens. It is fitted with three iron bands, two of which form hinges.
The rear legs built up with crude modern blocks nailed (?) in place (visible in photo c1930s)
Inside are two tills, the PL originally lidded (lid now missing), the PR without a lid.

The wide front plank is of higher quality oak (plain-sawn full width), with an average no of 10-15 annual growth rings per inch; the rest of the oak elements appear to be made of faster grown oak.

Metalwork
Two wide metal straps are wrapped around each corner, supporting the joints.
The lid has shadow marks of lost battens (metal?).
Iron lock plate:

Surface treatments
Heavy coloured varnish applied, possibly since arrival in Museum.

Formerly owned by Sir Edgar Speyer Bt, and supposed to have come from Aix-la-Chapelle. Bought at Christie's for £29-8-0 (28 guineas).
H.Clifford Smith's minute on the RPs [Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd. pt. 6 1912-1946 MA/1/C1401/6] (13/4/1920) suggests that he recognised Sir Edgar Speyer's chest (having written about it in The Burlington Magazine) at Christie's, the morning before the afternoon sale. 'I understand that Sir Edgar Speyer is sending the greater part of his works of art to America. He must have decided not to keep this extremely interesting chest. The chest (W.48-1912) cost us £50 in 1913. Sir Edgar Speyer paid £75 for his the same year. There is a whole literature on these 14th century chests with carved styles. The museum example offers no comparison in importance with the Speyer chest now at Christie's, whch is to be sold this afternoon. Could permission be obtained to bid for it up to £100? It might reasonably go for very much less; & it would be a misfortune to miss this opportunity when German works of art are temporarily under a cloud.'

H. Clifford Smith compared the chest to chests in the churches of Haconby (Lincs), Chevington (Suffolk) and Wath near Ripon (Yorks), all with stiles carved with panels of grotesque monsters, arguing that they suggest the close commercial relationship between England and Germany during the 15th century, though not necessarily that the chest was produced in Germany.

Roe noted the similarities with chests believed to be English but argued for a Germanic source (c.1300-1350), on the basis of provenance and construction: 'The mouldings are heavy, without exhibiting the sturdy directness of the English carver, however rugged might be his execution. The material of which they [also W.49-1912] are constructed very much resembles Rhineland oak; the grain is too fine and regular for the indigeneous twist of our national product, with its grander medullary rays.'

Comparable chests
W.49-1912

See also David Sherlock, Suffolk Church Chests. (Ipswich, 2008), p.55ff for discussion of the 9 chests in the 'Chevington' group:
Alnwick, Northumberland, St Michael's
Brancepeth, Co. Durham, St Brandon's (destroyed 1999)
Chevington, Suffolk, All Saints'
Hacconby, Lincs., St Andrew's
Kirkleatham, Yorks N R, St Cuthbert's
Prittlewell, Essex, St Mary's
Wroot, Lincs., St Pancras' (stolen c1980)
Majorca, Spain

Chest (84 x 168 x 70cm) offered at auction, Sotheby's 27/11/1970 lot 148, illustrated in Franz Windisch-Graetz, Möbel Europa. 1. Romantic-Gotik. (Munich, 1982), fig. 11
Check at Ockwells Manor, Berkshire, illustrated in

TIPPING, H.Avray: English Homes.
Periods I, II. Vol. II. Medieval and Early Tudor. (London, 1937). fig.272, p.188

Possibly English

W.18-1920