Lady Charlotte Finch's puzzle cabinet, upper cabinet with 13 drawers on lower cabinet with legs, varnished mahogany and brass fittings, English, 1760s.

Mahogany cabinet in two parts, made for the storage of dissected puzzles.

The upper cabinet Mahogany cabinet has 13 shallow drawers, each with two round brass ring pulls, behind double doors, and brass handles on each side of the cabinet. On the inside of the proper left door is a piece of manuscript, a 'provenance note' written and affixed in the 19th century to identify the owner as Lady Charlotte Finch. There is a curved area on the roof of the cabinet where the varnish has removed.

The lower cabinet is on legs with three drawers; each would have originally had two dark green ribbon pulls, but now the top has one right, the middle has two and the bottom has one left. The drawers are behind a drop-down door with key hole. There is a ridge where the upper cabinet sits, and in that area is a large crack along the top.

Presented by Art Fund jointly to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Historic Royal Palaces

Lady Charlotte Finch (1725-1813) was governess to the children of King George III for 30 years from 1762-1792. In this time, she oversaw 14 of the king and queen's 15 children.

This cabinet belonged to Lady Charlotte Finch, Royal Governess to the children of George III. She had it commissioned to hold several dissected map puzzles, which she had created for the royal children. Many of these have survived, having been kept within the cabinet (see B.2 to 19-2011).
Finch is credited in a note within the cabinet, by an unknown hand, as having created dissected map puzzles. Educational pastimes of this variety, however, had begun to increase in number immensely during the latter half of the 18th century, with leisure time becoming linked to marketable commodities aimed at those with disposable income.

B.1:1 & 2-2011