Some 17th century inventories

a few furniture forms

Yesterday and today were for some errands and other various chores that kept me from the shop. Then today I detoured back in my files to the 17th century, looking at inventories. I’ve been thinking of what to call this “dressing” box. So far the best I can come up with is “box with drawers” - but pulled a bunch of furniture forms with descriptors. Not that we can always, or maybe even often, connect these terms with existing pieces. But it’s fun to try. 

the box with drawers, limping along slowly..

This batch is Essex County Massachusetts - which is north of Boston for those of you keeping score. I read these in the 3-volume published editions done in the early 20th century - now you can find them online, maybe in a few places. I found vol 1 here https://archive.org/details/probaterecordsof01dowg/page/310/mode/2up  Shouldn’t be hard to find the others. And they’re transcribed which saves you all kinds of trouble. The title is The Probate Records of Essex County Massachusetts. George Francis Dow is the editor. 

A useful book when trying to suss out what the heck these people are looking at when they create these lists is Victor Chinnery’s posthumous book Names for Things: A Description of Household Stuff, Furniture and Interiors, 1500-1700 (published by Oblong, 2016).

1636 Sarah Dillingham, Ipswich 

towe bedsteds in the parlour £01-06-08 a large neste of boxes £2 a Smale neste of boxes 3s a Cubert 10s a Sea chest 10s  towe Joynd Chaires 5s a round table 7s a deske 4s

a band boxe 2s  a case of bottles 2s2d  2 boxes 1s6d  a box 3s4d  a chiste 8s