The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-11
ANCIENT CHESTS.
Common Prototype ef various FERNS Of
Modern Furniture.

among the stores Of curio vendors you
come across old chests. curiously carved.
with heavy lids and q massive solidity.
Persons with a fancy for old furniture
treasure such things; they belong to the
fine art Of furnishings, and at present are
rather articles OF so-called Uertu than OF
utility.
People dc not often pause TO remember
how much is owing to the paternity OF these
old chests. So far as immediate uses are
concerned the chest may be said to have
d~eteriorated into the mere travelling
trunk, and that itself has often become a
fiimsy article of tin.
Yet it can be easily demonstrated that
almost every article of furniture in our
homes has evolved directly from the old
chest Of wood or OF stone. Only in one
instance do we recognize the development
we still speak Of a chest Of drawers.
Tables have a similar origin. I'll old
chests were also often used as seats, and
therefore may have preceded chairs. Ward
robes and book shelves also fulfil offices once
belonging to the chest.
The cradle, the bedstead. spring imme-
diately from the same prototype. Some old
fashioned beds, like the one you read OF In
-Wuthering Heights" actually were en-
closed with wooden panels, Like a huge
box. In the coffin the chest In devoted to
what wa probably its earliest use. When
arch@ologists apply the term kistpuen to the
stone chambered graves that are found
under grassy barrows they are using a
word that literally means ton chest. In
parts OF Britain the coffin ia still called the
kist.
The chest filed nan uses in days when
life was really more simple; d neces-
sity and luxury rave not 30 much invented
as developed. Old carts were chests with
open top hat ran on wheels; even the early
boat had its points OF resemblance. II we
may take a common child's plaything a. an
accurate representation, We can believe that
the ark OF Noah was nothing but "A huge
chest with slopins top; and perhaps the
nursery toy is not entirely fanciful.
Classical stories tell US that Danaa and Per-
seus were exposed at sea in an open box. 1t
is no great stretch of m agination to regard
the chest placed on wheels az the germ Of
the modern railway train. and the chest
placed in the water as the germ Of the mod
ern steamship. The old chest is, therefore,
the parent OF many children. and its history
is surrounded with a species Of romantic
glamor.
OOihG VI U SUI IVAN W Otdutllul III
! themselves. We might ponder for hours
by the side Of the old family chest in some
country house, conjuriDg TO our minds eye
the household treasures, the domestic linen,
the bridal dresses. the careful gatherings Of
the prudent housewife, that have reposed
here securely from century to century.
Here were stored the family heirlooms OF
apparel or Of decoration; here was the rich
needlework that the young bride brought
with her.
1t was customary for the marrisg eabIe
maidens OF old times to have their chests
in prepa ration, storing them with the linen
that they spun with their own hands. Cy-
press chests were preferred for this pur-
pose, as being less liable to the invasions
OF the destroying moth.
IL is said that to this very day in the
Tyrol a bride rides home to her husband
on her chest; it is her dOwry-she is taking
to her home a treasure that shall last for
many years. Elsewhere in Europe when
a girl leaves home for service in the old
fashion that is fast becoming rare she car
ries her property with her in a square box,
perhaps merely OF deal, dear to her as
enclosing her all.
Poverty to-day repeats a condition that
once applied to rich and poo alike; there
are single room homes in gloomy alleys,
attics in dingy tenements, where you find
scarcely any furnishing but perhaps a BOX.
Shakespeare tells US to what uses such
a box might be put in the past, but the box
OF which he speaks was c~ostlier in its sub
stance and in its contents;
In ivory Golfer l have stored my crowns:
In cypress chests my arras. counterpoints,
Costly apparel. tents and canopies.
Pima Imam 'rurkiah rYGhinna hoasad xpitb
pearl.
Valance Of Venice gold in needlework
Pewter and brass. and all things that belong
To house or housekeeping.
These chests we're often most elaborately
decorated IN front and sides and on the
inner side of the lid, the top being left
plain, as more comfortable for sitting. A
frequent mode OF decorating them was by
red hot iron, which was an effective and COM
paratively easy method. The work was
done by heated ~skewers, chiefly employed
for chests OF cypress or spruce, and the
adjournment generally took the form of
pictures, hunting scenes or Hydrologic sub
jects.
Oak chests were carved, often with mar
vellous intricaoy and beauty, often pre-
senting in comparative miniature a counter
part TO the carving that was common in
churches at a time when artisans were
artists; some chests display a carving very |
similar to that seen on old bench ends |
oio puiIHb poilChs
Owing to the popular ballad Of the
-Mistletoe Bough' a tragic interest clings
to such chests, and the story there told
may be found attaching to many different
houses. not only in England but on the
Continent, at least proving how common |
these massive chests were and the posi-
bility OF tragedy connected with them.
Young I.ovels bride hid from her lord in
the old chest" and the heavy lid closed
over her head. At Bramshill House, in
Hampshire, the very chest il still shown in /
which the catastrophe occurred; but there |
are 20 many claimants at home and abroad
that we can only suppose hat each house
possessing such a chest has adopted the
story or that the terrible fate happened
rather frequently. Rogers tells the very
some story in his Italy" locallzlng it At
Modena.
The story Of the traveller on Dartmoor |
who was alarmed by the contents of an old
chest in his bedroom Is we'll known; the
explanation being that corpses during a
hard winter were sometimes sailed down
and kept indoors till the state OF the ground
permitted burial.
T-alittona 1au ~ .tknr Ioaun. n.,.u |