What's the difference between a coffer and a mule chest?

A coffer is a plain lift-lid chest with a single open interior. A mule chest is the same thing with one to three drawers built into the base. Both turn up throughout the category. Coffer appears in a third of titles on Sellingantiques, mule in a little over a quarter, and 'oak mule' is the single commonest phrase of all.

Which wood do Georgian chests usually come in?

Oak, by a wide margin. It's named in more than half of all titles, and the joined and panelled oak coffer is the shape the category is built around. Pine and elm make up the next group, mostly blanket and bedding boxes. Mahogany and walnut appear on the purpose-made pieces. Anything else, camphorwood, cedar, teak, chestnut, is scarce across the whole archive.

Are Welsh chests a separate group?

Yes, and it's the one strongly regional strand in the category. Welsh appears in a couple of dozen titles, often as Welsh oak. The coffrau bach, the little chests, are the notable part. They're the smallest things listed and they reach the very top of the range. Welsh work is also rising as a share of live stock.

Why are some pieces dated 19th century or Victorian?

The dated field spans 1700 to 1920, so a few pieces filed under this heading sit either side of the Georgian span. A handful of 17th Century and Victorian entries appear too. The profile is still overwhelmingly Georgian and 18th Century. Only 71 of 442 listings carry a clean year at all; the rest sit under period labels.

What is a coffer bach?

A small Welsh oak chest, the name meaning 'little chest'. Dealers spell it coffer bach, coffor bach or coffr bach, and around two dozen titles use one form or another. Some stand on turned feet. Despite the size, inlaid examples sit at the upper end of the category.

Do travelling trunks belong in this category?

They do. Trunk appears in roughly one in six titles, though a smaller share of those are true travelling trunks rather than box-shaped storage chests. Leather, hide and metal-bound examples turn up, along with brass studding and camphorwood. Odd things surface once or twice: a whaling sea chest, a mail carriage strong box, a pony-skin trunk.

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Georgian Chests

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A Georgian chest is a lidded storage box of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, made to hold linen, blankets, valuables or plate before drawers and wardrobes were common in the house.