One Slant-top Something From Some Time & Somewhere! –
It’s difficult to prove a negative. So when readers suggested there was no such thing as a slant-top chest or container after this post and this one, I knew that the Internet would provide.
Indexer Suzanne Ellison turned up this interesting example from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It’s called out as a “desk cupboard,” and the evidence suggests it was elevated on a stand at some point in its history.
Check out the full description of the item and the dendrochronology stuff. It’s nice to see that some of the people at the V&A know their woodworking stuff.
So one example doesn’t prove that this was the item shown in the 14th-century images from the original post. But it does show – as always – that early woodworkers were capable of almost any furniture form we can conceive of today.
— Christopher Schwarz
