Enquiry information

“THE WERMAN MARRIAGE CASKET.” SOMERSET. CIRCA 1525.

THIS ASTONISHINGLY RARE AND UNIQUE MARRIAGE CASKET FROM THE HENRY VIII PERIOD HAS BEEN MADE IN THE FORM OF A DIMINUTIVE CLAMP- FRONT CHEST, PROBABLY SOMERSET AND MOST LIKELY FROM THE WORKSHOP OF SIMON WERMAN. IN UNTOUCHED CONDITION WITH ONLY MINOR LOSSES.

IT IS AN OUTSTANDINGLY RARE AND IMPORTANT WORK OF ENGLISH ART.

EXTENSIVE RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON THIS PLEASE SEE BELOW.

Casket in the form of a miniature clamp-front chest. Oak, c. 1525. Probably North Somerset, likely the
workshop of Simon Werman († 1585). Untouched condition, with only minor losses and in-use repairs.
This singular casket, constructed as a miniaturised clamp-front chest, may be the only example of its type to
survive from late medieval Britian. The form and proportions are essentially those seen on the final phase of
English clamp-front chests of the later fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century. This type has no side
bracing, and lids that are internally pintle-hinged via inboard cleats [see fig. 1; Chinnery, Oak Furniture, 2: 121].
Chests of this type predate widespread production of fully framed stile-and-panel chests and are thus the last
representatives of a truly medieval furniture form. The resemblance to full-scale clamp-front chests of this type
includes the inboard pintle hinges and a minute interior till, formerly lidded.
The only comparable miniature clamp-front chest known, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum,
shows that caskets of this form may once have been more widespread in late medieval Europe [fig. 2]. Both
caskets feature all-over carving of late gothic character, including elaborate leaf-and-bud formulations and
curvilinear tracery. The V&A example is constructed oak and beech and shows affinities in construction and
ornament with late medieval furniture and fixed woodwork produced south of the Alps, whereas the casket
presently under discussion follows a clearly English idiom. There are late medieval English precedents for the
making of miniaturised chests as heavily ornamented status-objects, including the so-called “Alchemist’s
Chest”: a densely carved diminutive board chest, famously illustrated by R. W. Symonds [fig. 3].
A feature that helps narrow down the regional origins of the casket is the frieze attached to the lower edges of
the front and back boards. This is carefully shaped as an elongated late gothic cusped arch flanked by stepped
brackets. Although roughly similar profiles appear on numerous pieces of furniture and architecture in late
medieval Britian, the closest cognate appears on the front and back frieze boards of an early 16th-century
boarded bench in the V&A collection, which was found in Ilminster, Somerset [fig. 4]. The care with which this
feature has been reduced to the diminutive scale of the casket underscores that the maker’s intention was
miniaturisation, and that it was novelty and playfulness – rather than utility – that dictated the design.
The dense and varied, all-over carving offers more conclusive links to late medieval Somerset. The helical,
“barber’s pole” ornament worked on the outer edges of the stiles is often associated with late medieval
Somerset furniture. Notable examples include a passage of this ornament worked along the upper edge of the
loose header panels on the c. 1525 back from a fixed wall settle found in an old farmhouse near Taunton, and
now at the V&A [fig. 5]. Passages of this same type of decoration appear on the perimeters of the doors,
drawers, and panels from the now-famous cupboard previously sold by Period Oak Antiques and subsequently
sold at Bonhams in 2019 [fig. 6]. The stiles and rails of this cupboard are carved with a guilloche motif that also
appears on carved bench ends found at churches in North Somerset, which date to the 1520s or 30s. The
header panels on the V&A settle-back and the drawer fronts of the ex-Period Oak cupboard feature another
motif prevalent in late medieval Somerset: leaf-and-bud lozenges within tracery lancet roundels. A
paradigmatic example of this motif appears on the true-left rectangular field of the casket’s lid. Here, the
execution is particularly close to the roundels on the settle-back.
The most recognisable feature of the casket’s carving, besides its sheer variety, is the profuse punched
decoration. This type of decoration is especially prevalent on the earlier 16th-century bench ends found in West
Country parish churches, with a particular concentration in North Somerset. On the casket, the punched
decoration consists primarily of variations on a gouged sinusoid combined with quadripartite rectangular
punches at the trough of each oscillation. This is the emblematic punched motif used by Simon Werman (†
1585). Werman was active as a carver in North Somerset between around the time of his marriage in 1527
through at least the 1560s. He was a resident of Bicknoller parish and worked on sets of bench ends including
those at Broomfield and Trull. The earliest, fully gothic phase of his work is defined by particularly elaborate
leaf-and-bud compositions – like those on the casket – and extensive use of stamps, punches, and gouge
strikes on both the drop ground and raised fields of his carving. Werman’s signature punch decoration is
particularly evident on a bench end signed by him at St Mary, Broomfield, Somerset [figs. 7-8], which likely
dates from the mid to late 1520s. The elaborate leaf-and-bud compositions and tracery-lancet roundels carved
on the casket also closely resemble the carving of other bench ends from the first period of Werman’s work at
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Broomfield and Trull [figs. 9-10]. Additional types of punched decoration present on the casket (hexpartite grid
and cruciform stamps, as well as double sinusoids) are well within Werman’s documented repertoire.
Motifs that appear on the casket yet are not known on bench ends attributed to Werman are still well
represented on late medieval bench ends elsewhere in the broader region. The compass-drawn six-pointed
star roundel on the reverse of the casket is paralleled by a similarly executed motif on a bench end at Holy
Cross, Tetcott (near Holsworthy, Devon). Gouged scales running in pairs down the front stiles of the casket are
also seen decorating the columns on fictive arcades carved on the bench ends at St Michael, (near Bridford,
Devon) [fig. 12].
Other motifs, although found further afield, are still solidly linked to known examples of medieval English
furniture. These include the elaborate three-dimensional, layered flowerheads on true-right side panel, which
closely resemble flowerheads that appear within leaf-and-bud-elaborated parchemins on the doors of a c.
1530s joined cupboard illustrated by Percy Macquoid and probably originating in the East Midlands [fig. 13].
Dished, daisy-like flowerheads carved on the lower portions of the front stiles below the level of the casket’s
floorboard resemble flowerheads on a later 15th-century carved clamp-front chest from the famous collection
assembled at
Ockwells Manor [fig. 14]. The interesting division of the casket’s lid into two distinct rectangular fields of carving compares to a fragmentary board chest dating to the late 15th or early 16th century, which sold at Dreweatts, Donnington Priory in 2013 [fig. 15].
There is more than ample evidence to attribute this casket to the workshop of Simon Werman, one of only two
known makers of late medieval bench ends who signed their work. It is certain that Werman and his workshop
had the skills and knowhow. That the casket was a prestige luxury object is confirmed not only by its
sumptuous, all-over carving, but also by its self-conscious miniaturism, which must have been a great novelty
to the original owner. It was likely intended as a valuable box, perhaps for jewellery. It could even have been a
marriage gift, as the exchange of elaborate caskets between couples was a widespread practice in Western
Europe during the late 15th and 16th centuries.

References:
Chinnery, Victor. Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (Woodbridge, 1979).
Cox, J. Charles. Bench Ends in English Churches (London, 1916).
Eames, Penelope. Medieval Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the Twelfth to the
Fifteenth Century (London, 1977).
Gray, Todd. Devon’s Ancient Bench Ends (Exeter, 2012).
A Gazetteer of Ancient Bench Ends in Cornwall’s Parish Churches (Exeter 2016).
Macquoid, Percy. A History of English Furniture: The Age of Oak (Stratford-on-Avon, 1904).
Musacchio, Jacqueline. The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy Marie (London,1999).
Osborn, Bob. The Carved Medieval Bench Ends of South Somerset (Yeovil, 2003).
Poyntz-Wright, Peter. Rural Bench Ends of Somerset (Amersham, 1983).
Smith, J.C.D. Church Woodcarvings, A West Country Study (Newton Abbot, 1969). Symonds, R. W. Furniture Making in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England (London, 1955).
Tracy, Charles. English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork (London (1988).



STOCK NO 2055.