It is tempting to assume that, like much of the Continental furniture at Nostell, including the magnificent Gole cabinet, this coffre-fort came into the Winn family through Sir Rowland Winn's marriage to the Swiss heiress Sabine, daughter of Baron d'Hervart of Vevey (d.1780). However it does not appear to be listed among her inheritance.

This chest may be the 'Strong box bound with brass with 4 bottles and recesses', noted in the Nostell 1806 inventory, p.26, drawn up by
H. Phillips following the death of Sir Rowland Winn, 6th baronet (1775-1805). A similar chest, which was possibly the one purchased by Charles Winn (d.1874) in 1846, was illustrated in M. Brockwell, Catalogue of Pictures at Nostell Priory, 1915, and sold Nostell Priory House Sale, Christie's, 1 May 1990, lot 278.
A Louis XVI coffre à abattant with identical mounts appears in a 19th Century watercolour at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and was executed for the Maison Alphonse Giroux (N. de Reynies, Le Mobilier Domestique, 1988, vol. I, fig. 1738). A related strong-box at Ham House, Richmond, belonging to Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale (d.1698) has its frame fitted with similar security 'corkscrews' for bolting into floorboards (P. Thornton, 'Ham House', Journal of the Furniture History Society, XVI, 1980, fig. 68)