A small late 17th century elm coffer. The boarded coffer is made from well figured timber and has a beautifully carved front and the initials GW. Lovely honey colour.

There is some evidence of old woodworm and wear to some of the edges, but this coffer is in remarkable condition with the original bracket feet, hinges, lock-plate and hasp.

West Country circa 1690

43” wide x 16” deep x 20” high / 109cm wide x 40cm deep x 50cm high

£sold

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A similar elm chest, dated 1692 is illustrated on page 45 of Farm and Cottage Furniture in the West Country by Gabriel Olive & published by The Regional Furniture Society in 2002.

The following is from chapter 5 – Chests, Coffers and Boxes –

…By the beginning of the eighteenth century the craft of the joiner appears to have died out completely. The few panelled chests made in the eighteenth century are evidently the work of craftsmen trained in a different tradition. Coffers,however, were still being made until the end of the century in village workshops. It is worth noting that the majority of West Country coffers from the eighteenth century are of elm rather than oak. Elm was used for a number of special purposes, particularly where water was present. It was used to make V-shaped guttering under thatch and to form the troughs of dough bins and zylts. It was used by wheelwrights for the hubs of wheels and the floor and sides of wagons. In the West Country elm was used extensively in house carpentry for beans,roofing and flooring. Village carpenters were also village undertakers, and wide elm boards,which might be needed at any time to make coffins, were part of their regular stock in trade. It is not surprising therefore, that elm boards were used by these village craftsmen, who were not primarily furniture makers, to produce coffers.

& From Oak Furniture by Victor Chinnery

’Elm has a crossed, fibrous and interlocking grain, which makes it very tough and difficult to cleave, The distinctive annual rings lend it a vivid well-marked grain,with an attractive pattern of fine zigzag markings. There is a marked tendency for planks to distort on drying since shrinkage is very irregular, so boards in seats and panels may assume quite a strongly-buckled appearance. Elm is mainly a hedgerow tree and is seldom found in forests, so it provided a readily accessible source of timber for village carpenters. It often grows to a hundred feet or more, so that it is occasionally found in large single-plank table tops’