Call this number and tell the woman I must see her chest without delay.

That’s the sort of unusual note Mike finds on his desk in the morning. And let me tell you, what a chest it turned out to be! Central or Northern Spanish, 17th century, and massive.

I was looking through cheap furniture advertised online for something to store blankets/duvets in during the summer months. So when I saw this I was stunned. The construction is sublime. The moulding at the bottom is carved from a single piece of wood rather than layered and glued together. The corners are a very early take on dovetailing and the iron metalwork is all original (laid on red felt). It’s suffered badly from wood worm, and I’ve just spent the past week making sure there was none left. This has, of course, led to a whole rearrangement of furniture in the hallway upstairs. Fortunately the chest looks excellent with my old Dutch chairs.

Also, the linen curtains for the stairs are ready! All the way to the floor, they look fantastic.

So here’s what it looks like now

If you like this sort of thing, the best dealer for this style of furniture is Z. Sierra in Madrid. At the moment they have a handful of excellent chests (arca in Spanish). Expect to pay +-5 thousand for a good specimen.