Chest, made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, London, 1861-2, of wood (probably pine) with silver leaf

A painted coffer, the rectangular top above a panelled frieze and sides, the top painted red and heavily clasped with pierced and studded wrought-iron locks and mounts and lock, the frieze painted with stylised flowers and circles within a square trellis on a gilt and silvered ground.

Although this cabinet had no provenance when acquired in 1978, the Gothic form, painted design and decorative technique suggest that it was the chest exhibited by Morris, Marshall, Faulker & Co. in the Medieval Court at the 1862 Exhibition. A review of the firm's furniture in The Parthenon, No. 23, October 4th 1862, p. 724, mentioned 'a lacquered chest', described as having 'diaper-flower decorations'. Philip Webb's accounts for the 1862 furniture designs included a chest with ironwork, at £1 10s (£1 50p).

The decoration on the painted panels was created using silver leaf, glazes and tinted varnishes, a medieval technique revived by Burges for the Yatman cabinet of 1858, and also found on the St. George cabinet. The source, Theophilus's De diversis artibus, an 11th century treatise, was published in English in 1847 by John Murray as An Essay upon Various Arts.

It is likely that this chest was the one shown by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in the Medieval Court at the London International Exhibition of 1862. This exhibition was the first time that the firm had displayed its work. Webb’s 1862 accounts list a chest with ironwork, possibly this one, as costing £1 10s.

The chest’s Gothic form and painted decoration show Webb’s interest in medieval sources. The regular painted pattern of formalised daisies recalls the backgrounds of miniatures in medieval manuscripts. Even the way in which this pattern was applied, using sliver leaf, glazes and tinted varnishes, was an unusual medieval technique, also revived by another nineteenth-century furniture designer, William Burges.

On loan to National Trust Knightshayes Court.

W.35-1978