17th Century Oak Storage Box with Carvings

A carved oak storage box or bible box; 17th century and later,…
click the photo to enlarge
A carved oak storage box or bible box; 17th century and later, the moulded and incised rising top above a relief carved front with a stylised scrolling tendril design. Height 25 cm, width 62 cm, depth 39 cm. Provenance: Elizabethan village, Armadale WA. Acquired from the above

You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.

Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item

When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.

This item has been sold, and the description, image and price are for reference purposes only.
  • Elizabethan - Strictly speaking, furniture usually in oak, made in the reign of Elizabetht I, from 1558 to 1603. The style incororates elaborate and ostentatious carving of classicial figures and themes and bulbous baluster legs, with an Italian Renaissance influence. When a piece is described as "Elizabethan style", it mimics the attributes of the Elizabethan period, but was made at a later date.
  • 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.
  • Oak - Native to Europe and England, oak has been used for joinery, furniture and building since the beginning of the medieval civilisation. It is a pale yellow in colour when freshly cut and darkens with age to a mid brown colour.

    Oak as a furniture timber was superceded by walnut in the 17th century, and in the 18th century by mahogany,

    Semi-fossilised bog oak is black in colour, and is found in peat bogs where the trees have fallen and been preserved from decay by the bog. It is used for jewellery and small carved trinkets.

    Pollard oak is taken from an oak that has been regularly pollarded, that is the upper branches have been removed at the top of the trunk, result that new branches would appear, and over time the top would become ball-like. . When harvested and sawn, the timber displays a continuous surface of knotty circles. The timber was scarce and expensive and was used in more expensive pieces of furniture in the Regency and Victorian periods.
  • Bible Box - A lidded box, often made of oak or walnut with incised carving, designed to hold the family bible with its record of births, deaths and marriages. They were sometimes set on a stand and were popular in the 17th and 18th century, although there are also 19th century examples.

This item has been included into following indexes: