This chapter concludes with an exceptional and very picturesque chest with drawers (Plate lxv., No. 497 in the Victoria and Albert Museum). For once we have a change from the wooden surface. This is covered with brown leather, and round-headed brass nails are the chief means of simply producing a very effective result. Besides the scrolls and rosettes of the front there is upon the top the monogram of William and Mary surmounted by a crown, also in brass nails. At the sides are massive drop handles for convenience of moving. Angle pieces and lock-plates of brass add to the decorative scheme, and remind us of the cabinets of lacquer, either Japanese or European imitations, which also rely for their effect largely upon their gilded brass work, applied in this identical manner. Leather-covered decorative furniture of an extremely elaborate kind was made long before this period in Italy, as may be judged from the exquisite Milanese specimen belonging to Mr. George Salting, long on loan at South Kensington. Velvet, too, was used.

Plate LXV. Leather Covered Chest Late 17th Century

LXV. Chest, leather-covered. Late seventeenth century. V. & A. M.

Dimensions: Height 26¾, Length 38, Depth from front to back 22 inches.

Mr. Fred Roe, mentioning on page 111 of Ancient Coffers and Cupboards its introduction into England during the sixteenth century, says that at Kimbolton Castle, Hunts, there still exists a travelling chest which once belonged to Katharine of Aragon. This is, like our leather one, decorated with the queen's initials and a crown, and has remained at the castle since 1535. Another leather trunk made for a Duke of Dorset, to serve as his chest of office as Lord Treasurer, is at Knole, Kent.