Antique Marriage Chest in Painted Pine, Central Europe, 1775

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This antique painted marriage chest in pine is a Central European dowry chest with three floral panels and Gothic-lettered inscriptions, … Read more This antique painted marriage chest in pine is a Central European dowry chest with three floral panels and Gothic-lettered inscriptions, dated 1775. It originates from Austro-hungarian Empire, from the last quarter of the eighteenth century, where pine was painted in distemper over a pale ground.The wedding chest accompanied the bride from her father’s house to the new one, loaded with the trousseau she brought to the marriage. It travelled in full view of the village, and for that reason the front gathered the decoration, the date and the written mottoes: it was a public document before it was a storage piece.The case is solid pine with a three-board lid and long-strap wrought-iron hinges. The escutcheon, also of iron, is cut in a shield profile. The plinth is moulded in ogee and runs around all four sides.The front is organised into three recessed panels with tile-red mouldings, each with a spray of carnations, tulips and lilies on a cream ground. Between them, two vertical blue-green bands carry a motto apiece in white Gothic lettering: “Lieb du mich wie ich dich, so bleibet unsere Liebe ewiglich” — love me as I love you, and our love will remain forever — and “Lieben und geliebet werden ist die beste Zeit auf Erden” — to love and be loved is the best of life on earth. The sides carry a lattice of stylised carnations framed in acanthus scrollwork, and the lid repeats that acanthus in a golden tone over green.The painting has gained a warm tone and the red mouldings have lost body along the arrises. The lid shows the wear proper to a surface used as a bench for generations. The inscriptions read in full, with no repaint.Its height of 52 cm makes it a coffee table, a bench at the foot of the bed or an entrance-hall piece. It is an antique with a text: it works equally well as a piece in use and as an object to read in a restrained interior.

Dimensions: Length 133 cm – Width 65 cm – Height 52 cmStyle: Central European folk artMaterials and techniques: Pine wood; wrought-iron hinges and escutcheon; distemper painting over a pale ground.Place of origin: Central Europe – Austro-hungarian EmpirePeriod: Eighteenth-century folk artDate of manufacture: 1775Condition: Good. Original painting dated 1775, with losses on the red mouldings and wear on the lid. Wear consistent with age and use. See less