18th c. French Chest

The coffer is the oldest form of furniture there is, a locking chest that held a household's linens and valuables long before cupboards and chests of drawers existed to hold them. Found in Avignon and dating to the late 18th century, it sits low and heavy on a molded plinth, the front carved with a scrolled cartouche around the lock and joined at the corners by deep hand-cut dovetails. Iron handles at each end meant it could be lifted and carried from house to house, the way a chest like this often traveled, packed with a bride's linens to begin a new home. Sylvie would set it at the foot of a bed or under a window, a low table with two centuries already closed inside it.