A GEORGE II BRASS-STUDDED LEATHER COFFER

CIRCA 1750, BY SMITH AND LUCAS

Details

A GEORGE II BRASS-STUDDED LEATHER COFFER
Circa 1750, By Smith and Lucas
With domed panelled lid centering a coronet above the royal cypher 'GR' within scrolls, the case with tulips, applied with brass lockplate of a crown above scrolls, with brass carrying handles, enclosing the original paper-lined interior, with the maker's printed paper label: 'Smith and Lucas/Coffer & Plate Case Makers/to his Majesty/and his Royal Highness/The Prince of Wales/at the Kings Arms & Trunks at Charing Cross/Makers & Sells all Sorts of Sumpler &/Portmantuas, Trunks & Leather/Portmantuas, Valleese's & Canteens/Leather Fire Buckets and Jacks/Likewise Cases for Plate, China/and Glasses at Reasonable Rates', within a cartouche surmounted by the Royal coat-of-arms
21½in. (54.5cm.) high, 41¾in. (106cm.) wide, 21¾in. (55cm.) deep

Lot Essay

Another coffer also bearing Edward Smith's trade label was sold Sotheby's London, 19 June 1981, lot 59. Earlier coffers of this form with similar decorative brass-studding include an early seventeenth century example at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in R.W.Symonds, 'Coffer-Makers' and Upholsterers' Chairs', The Antique Collector, January-February 1950, p.19, fig.1).