What's the difference between a coffer and a blanket box?

In practice the words overlap. "Coffer" tends to be used for the earlier oak chests, plank or panelled, and appears in 407 titles. "Blanket box" is the general term for a lidded chest kept in a bedroom or hall, and appears in 522. The same chest could carry either name depending on the dealer writing the title. Reading the timber and construction in the description tells you more than the noun does.

Which wood are these usually made from?

Oak leads, in 506 titles, followed by pine in 298. Elm, camphor wood, mahogany, walnut and a scattering of satinwood, padouk and teak make up the rest. Oak carries the panelled and carved coffers. Pine carries the Victorian boxes, often painted, scumbled or stripped.

How old can a blanket chest be?

The dealers' dated field runs from 1680 to 1940 across the listings that carry a clean year. Title attributions reach further, with sixteenth-century Tudor and Elizabethan claims at one end and 1930s oak at the other. One sampled title claims a late fifteenth-century Gothic coffer in oak and elm. It is the only pre-1500 attribution anywhere in the evidence, so medieval dating isn't a real segment of this market.

Are these only English?

No. Origins outside Britain form a steady minority: Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Romanian, Alpine, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Zanzibari, Canadian and American pieces all appear. Swedish painted chests and Chinese camphor wood turn up most often among them.

Do people use blanket chests as something else?

Often, and dealers say so in the title. Twenty-two titles offer the chest as a coffee table. Others are listed as a TV stand, hall seat, window seat or fireside bin. The low, flat-lidded forms take to it most easily.

Who made antique blanket chests?

Names are almost absent from this category. A scan of 1,290 listings turned up no maker or workshop attributions at all, which is unusual for a furniture form. What dealers name instead is a region. Welsh appears in 36 titles, and Yorkshire, Lakeland, Lancashire, Dorset, Westmorland, West Country and North Country coffers all surface in the samples.

Home > Chests > Blanket Chests > Page 4

Antique Blanket Chests

754 items · page 4 of 48

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A lidded chest with a hinged top, made to store and carry blankets, linen and valuables long before the chest of drawers took over the job.

18th century

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18th Century Welsh Oak Coffer Bach

From Abersoch Antiques

£650

FOR SALE

chests

19th century

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Handsome 19th Century Mahogany Box on Stand.

From Charnwood Antiques

£695

FOR SALE

chests

17th century

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Exceptional Quality 17th Century Antique Oak Mule Chest with Marquetry Inlay

From London City Antiques

£2,250

FOR SALE

chests

19th century

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Quality Carpenter’s Pine Box

From Elmgarden

£395

FOR SALE

chests

17th century

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Antique 17th Century Quality Oak Mule Chest

From London City Antiques

£1,485

FOR SALE

chests

Fabulous Large Georgian Mahogany Military Travelling Chest Box C.1750

18th century

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Fabulous Large Georgian Mahogany Military Travelling Chest Box C.1750

From Charnwood Antiques

£1,095

FOR SALE

chests

Italian Walnut Carved Buffet Trunk Renaissance Coffer 1830

18th century

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Italian Walnut Carved Buffet Trunk Renaissance Coffer 1830

From Canonbury Antiques

£3,250

FOR SALE

chests

Antique Victorian Metal Bound Oak Trunk | Blanket Box

19th century

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Antique Victorian Metal Bound Oak Trunk | Blanket Box

From ActFurniture LTD

£495

FOR SALE

chests

19th century

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Antique Stained Pine Large Blanket Box

From Penderyn Antiques

£495

FOR SALE

chests

1900 - 1920

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Dark Oak Carved Coffer

From Worboys Antiques

£375

FOR SALE

chests

Kist, cassone, coffer bach, damchiya dowry chest, Armada chest, Zanzibar chest, cannonball box, slipper box - all one form, each name turning up only a handful of times.

Antique Steamer Trunk Luggage Case Leather Vintage 1920s

1900 - 1920

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Antique Steamer Trunk Luggage Case Leather Vintage 1920s

From Canonbury Antiques

£875

FOR SALE

chests

Large Early 20th-century Japanese Chinoiserie Lacquered Blanket Box on Stand

1900 - 1920

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Large Early 20th-century Japanese Chinoiserie Lacquered Blanket Box on Stand

From Artsonline

£490

FOR SALE

chests

17th century

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A 17th Century Joined Oak Coffer

From M Cross Antiques

£800

FOR SALE

chests

19th century

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19th Century Camphor Wood Blanket Box

From The Old Cinema

£478

FOR SALE

chests

19th century

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Antique Tibetan Painted Chest

From Rams Head Antiques

£495

FOR SALE

chests

Antique Georgian Golden Oak Coffer | Dated 1723

18th century

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Antique Georgian Golden Oak Coffer | Dated 1723

From ActFurniture LTD

£495

FOR SALE

chests

← 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 48 →

Antique Blanket Chests

18th Century Welsh Oak Coffer Bach

Handsome 19th Century Mahogany Box on Stand.

Exceptional Quality 17th Century Antique Oak Mule Chest with Marquetry Inlay

Quality Carpenter’s Pine Box

Antique 17th Century Quality Oak Mule Chest

Fabulous Large Georgian Mahogany Military Travelling Chest Box C.1750

Italian Walnut Carved Buffet Trunk Renaissance Coffer 1830

Antique Victorian Metal Bound Oak Trunk | Blanket Box

Antique Stained Pine Large Blanket Box

Dark Oak Carved Coffer

Antique Steamer Trunk Luggage Case Leather Vintage 1920s

Large Early 20th-century Japanese Chinoiserie Lacquered Blanket Box on Stand

A 17th Century Joined Oak Coffer

19th Century Camphor Wood Blanket Box

Antique Tibetan Painted Chest

Antique Georgian Golden Oak Coffer | Dated 1723

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