An outstanding 17th century joined oak coffer with drawers, named and dated 1657


The twin-boarded hinged lid with applied slender egg-and-dart and delicate dentil-moulded edge, the toprail divided into three using solid and pierced downswept corbels, two end sections with matching carved strapwork, the third carved with a coat of arms within the Garter, with lion and unicorn supporters, three panels below, spaced by paired pillars on stop-fluted plinths, each end panel carved with a deep arcade, the arch filled with paired bird profiles, with one outstretched wing, centred by a Mannerist putto mask, each pillar carved with a different animal, seated on a mound - a cat, greyhound, stag and Talbot hound - all enclosing a panel nailed from behind and carved with paired S-scrolls, the central panel with a mantled shield, topped by a ducal coronet, and carved with the name and date 'Jane Corbett Februarie 7:1657', framed by flared and gadrooned-carved rails, with a foliate spray at each cardinal point, the two drawers below with similar framing rails centred by flowing flora, flanked by stiff-leaf corbels, the ends of the front stile supports with further carving, triple-panelled sides, 133cm wide x 61cm deep x 91.5cm high, (52in wide x 24in deep x 36in high)
|Exhibited:The Merchant's House, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 2006-2018A coat of arms within the Garter is carved to this chest's toprail, but has been mutilated by later (typical) alterations or adaptions to the lock and keyhole. Though partly defaced, the arms appear to incorporate a saltire. The encircling Garter indicates that the arms were those of a member of the Order of the Garter, as they alone were entitled to incorporate it into their arms. The arms of several members of the Order included a saltire: Neville (members of the Order since the 14th century), gules, a saltire argent; Fitzgerald, argent, a saltire gules and Guilford or, a saltire between four martlets sable. The relationship between the arms of a member of the Order of the Garter and Jane Corbett, whose name is carved to the shield of the central panel, is unclear. Stylistically, the chest could be earlier than 1657, the date which accompanies Jane's name, and so it is possible that this inscription is a slightly later addition to what is an early 17th century piece of furniture. This impression is strengthened by the fact that the shield carved with her name has a cleaned-off appearance; most compellingly, however, it is topped by a ducal coronet, which no Corbett of the period in question had the right to bear. It is probable that the shield was once carved with the arms of a Knight of the Garter, also a Duke, which were later replaced to commemorate Jane Corbett.A Jane Eves is recorded as marrying a Thomas Corbett on 7 February 1656 (1657) in the parish registers of Broseley in Shropshire [The Parish Registers of Broseley, Shropshire 1570 – 1700, edited by Alfred F. C. C. Langley (London, 1889)]. A child, Anne, presumably the first child of their marriage (given the date of her baptism), was baptised in the same parish on 24 November 1657. Two further children born to a Thomas and a Jane Corbett, Mary and William, were baptised on 1 April 1661 and 1 October 1663 respectively. That it is this Jane Eves who is commemorated on this chest is further suggested by the existence of a panel-back chair, which is carved with the date 1657 and the name Thomas Corbett. The names Corbett and Eves were commonplace in Shropshire. Corbetts owned the eponymous Moreton Corbet Castle, twenty or so miles from Broseley, and were a family of considerable means. Other branches of the family lived at Caus and at Longnor, also in Shropshire. The will of William Corbett, joiner of Willey, Shropshire, was proved in 1654, and in it he left all of the tools of his trade, 'and all the tymber about my house that is unwrought' to his son Thomas. It could, therefore, have been this Thomas Corbett who made this furniture. Benthall Hall, less than two miles from Broseley, contains oak carvings not dissimilar from this chest. A map drawn by Samuel Parsons around 1621, called 'The Plott of Broseley', showing landholding in the district, described a coal seam inset as belonging to 'Eves', suggesting that Jane's family were involved in the lucrative Shropshire mining industry.