Antique Blue-Painted Pine Chest, Central Europe, 1870

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This antique blue-painted chest in pine wood is a Central European peasant chest with shaped end boards and splayed feet. … Read more This antique blue-painted chest in pine wood is a Central European peasant chest with shaped end boards and splayed feet. It originates from Central Europe, from the last third of the nineteenth century, where solid board was painted in a single flat colour.Prussian blue, the first modern synthetic pigment, became cheap enough over the nineteenth century to reach peasant furniture, and in many regions it displaced floral polychromy. A chest painted a single intense blue was the modern, economical version of the decorated chest.The case is solid pine with the front boards half-lapped. The lid, in two pieces, rests on the end boards, which continue above into shaped projections. The feet are cut from the stiles themselves and splay slightly outward.The blue has been reduced to an uneven film over the wood: dense on the end boards and the lid, almost gone from the front, where the pine shows through in broad honey-toned areas. In places a green appears beneath the blue, the trace of an earlier coat.That wear distributes the colour as if it were natural flaking, with no hard points and no outlines. The surface reads authentic and has not been retouched.At 142 cm long and 60 high, it works as an entrance bench, a long coffee table or a storage piece at the foot of a bed. The blue works especially well against white walls and pale wooden floors.DetailsRef.: AM35053Dimensions: Length 142 cm – Width 49 cm – Height 60 cmStyle: Central European folk artMaterials and techniques: Pine wood; half-lap joinery; oil paint in a Prussian-blue type over an earlier green coat.Place of origin: Central EuropePeriod: Nineteenth-century folk artDate of manufacture: Circa 1870Condition: Good. Original blue paint much worn, with wood exposed on the front and traces of an earlier green coat. Wear consistent with age and use. See less