A rare & small Elizabeth I boarded oak, walnut, bog-oak, holly and fruitwood parquetry and marquetry-inlaid 'Nonsuch' chest, circa 1580

The cleated lid with paired linear inlaid design of inner framed rectangles, the front with two inlaid reserves, each decorated with architectural fantasies framed within an arcade, flanked by an inlaid hexagonal tower, each side with further inlaid bands and iron bail-handle, original shaped bracket feet, the interior till with secret compartment, working original key.

Although the decoration on this chest is characteristic of 16th century German inlay it is now thought possible this type of work was done in London, particularly in the environs of Southwark, from the second half of the 16th century, probably by immigrant German joiners and inlayers. The architectural decoration is popularly assumed to represent Henry VIII's celebrated Nonsuch Palace, Surrey, particularly with reference to the fanciful towers. However, it is more likely to have derived from 16th century printed designs, such as those published by Hans Vredeman de Vries, (1527-1604).

Comparable examples illustrated, Percy Macquoid, The Age of Oak (1925), pp. 120 - 127, colour pl. VIII, figs. 103-105; Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (2016), p. 306, fig. 3:358; Margaret Jordain, English Decoration and Furniture of the Early Renaissance 1500-1650 (1924), p. 267, figs. 374 & 375. A similar chest is in the collection of The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, [item no. W.17:1-1931]