William And Mary Kingwood Coffre-Fort

Rectangular with brass strapping and side handles. Lock plate and flap. Fitted sometime in the 19th century as a tea caddy. Labeled Orange Pekoe and Black tea...

Octagonal top and barley twist support ending on an X-form platform base.

With a fabulous oyster veneer top over a drawer raised on barley twist legs joined by stretchers. Bun feet.

With D shape drop leaves and a frieze drawer. Swing out leaf supports.Turned legs and stretchers.

With a rectangular top over a drawer with a pair of brass handles. Turned legs with turned stretcher. Lower 3/4 stretchers. Bun feet.

With a rectangular top with oak oyster veneer decoration. Over a drawer and raised on turned legs joined by turned stretchers. Button feet. A more unusual example with great patina.

A William and Mary Kingwood / Princes Oyster Strongbox or Coffre Fort of Diminutive Proportions, Circa 1680-1700, England. Adorned with highly decorative gilt brass strapwork and decorated entirely in knife cut oysters of kingwood, this box is fit for the most discerning of collectors. The large gilt brass shield-shaped clasp opens on a push-spring release to reveal a box interior lined in rosewood with one drawer and securing bolts. Once the lid is opened you can reach inside to slide the original gilt brass bolt lock to open the fall. Once the fall is open you will find a drawer lined in oak and simulated kingwood. The box appears decorative, but it was also very difficult to break open or steal. It has a strong lock to the centre and two bolts concealed in the sides, so that it could be screwed down into floorboards if necessary or that of a horse-drawn carriage. Strong boxes veneered in oysters of Princewood such as this were luxury objects. The cabinet-makers who would have constructed and veneered the carcase apparently sold them, often using tropical hardwood veneers, and mounted it with sets of mounts, handles and locks bought in from brass founders. The elaborate veneering and conspicuous gilded brass mounts show that the appearance of these objects was important. Thomas Pistor, of Ludgate Hill, London worked with the renowned cabinetmaker Gerrit Jensen...

A William and Mary Kingwood/Princes oyster strongbox or Coffre Fort, circa 1680-1700, England. Adorned with highly decorative gilt brass strapwork and decorated in knife-cut oysters ...

The unique 17th-century William and Mary rosewood coffre forte, circa 1690, raised on George I walnut stand, circa 1720. The rosewood veneered exterior...

A fine late 17th-century olive oyster 'Lace Box' of small proportions, circa 1680-1690, England. The cross-grain moulded and holly banded top is finely veneered in hand-cut veneers ...

A strongbox was a type of travelling chest and these types of boxes were more common in England than anywhere else where they were fabricated between 1660 and 1720. The earliest proo...

A Fine Miniature William and Mary 17th Century Diminutive Olive Oyster chest. From the reign of King William & Queen Mary (1688-1702), England. The...