The approximate dimensions of this coffer are 85 x 65cms and the depth is 35cms. The guy I bought it from is not a regular dealer in coffers, so not a lot of information available there! I think it’s middle-European - somewhere like Czech Republic or Hungary, but the age is a puzzle. Some of it looks as if it could be late medieaval, but some of it doesn’t! It’s quite common for these coffers to be rebuilt incorporating earlier elements, so I think the front panels are old, indeed the whole front, but the lid and probably the sides and back I think are more recent.
It’s this bastardisation of older with newer that enables the low-budget collector to pick up things which flatter to deceive: they look great, but are not ‘right’, and that knocks a whole lot off the value. This, judging but what I paid for it, is in that category.
More information on this item would be gratefully received.
(use the zoom facility at bottom right - there’s more detail at x200)
Posted in Middle Europe, antiques, art, art-objects, ethnic, furniture, images, photography, random
