Italian Walnut Carved Chest with Dragons

• Incised - A record of a name, date or inscription, or a decoration scratched into a surface, usually of a glass or ceramic item with a blunt instrument to make a coarse indentation. Compare with engraving where the surface is cut with a sharp instrument such as a metal needle or rotating tool to achieve a fine indentation.
• Panels - Timber pieces, usually of well-figured wood either recessed or applied over the frames of doors and as decoration elsewhere in the carcase of cabinet furniture. The panels may take a variety of shapes rectangular, square, shield shape, oval, half-round or in the form of Egyptian pylons.
• Dovetail Joints - At regular intervals in one board, wedge-shaped projections are cut, which fit and are glued into matching recesses cut in the corresponding board opposite, thus forming a 'dovetail' appearance. One of the strongest joints devised for furniture. Found in most drawers and the joints fixing the tops, bottoms and rails at right angles to the side pieces of most cabinets. Before the invention of the dovetail joint, furniture had been held together by metal or wooden dowels or pegs.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• coffers - European 182
• trunks - various wooden 62