Chests Chests are the most common furniture item found from the Viking Age. They would have been used for both storage and for seating. Some chests have straight sides, while others have sloped sides. Those with sloped sides are commonly called sea chests, as the sloping of the sides helps the chest stay upright on rough sea voyages. Most chests were made with six boards: four parallel boards that formed the body of the chest, and two boards that formed the sides. Examples of six-board chests from the Viking Age are the three Oseberg chests, the Mästermyr tool chest, the Hedeby chest, the Voxtorp chest, the Ryssby chest and the Rydaholm chest. Earlier chests tend towards the sloped sides like the Oseberg, Mästermyr and Hedeby chests, while chests from the 11th century and beyond tend to have straight sides. Oseberg Chest No. 149 The most impressive example of a Norse chest was found in the Oseberg Queen s burial. The caption reads, Solid iron fittings and refined lock secure the chest s contents. The chest is made of oak reinforced with iron bands. The end battens, or legs, on which the chest stands are pegged into the bottom plank. The lid is secured by a padlock, which has survived, though the key has been lost. Each of the lock hasps is shaped like an animal s head. The decoration of the chest consists of iron plates ornamented with tinned nail-heads. (Almgren, p. 187) The top is attached to the back of the chest with nine iron hinges. The ends of the chest are gently sloped inward, as are the front and back of it. The top of the chest is made from a thicker board which is slightly curved and hollowed out on the inside. (Christensen, Ingstad & Myhre, p. 91) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 6
Oseberg Chest No. 149 Schematic Drawing The chest is about 4 feet long and 16 inches high. More precisely, it is 108cm long at the top, and 113cm long at the ground edge. It is 29cm wide at the top and 32cm wide at the floor. It is 38cm high. The iron bands are between 6-6.5cm wide. Each iron band has three rows of nails with decorative tinned heads. The lock is carved out of the front panel and is set behind a metal plate. The lock works by moving the lock-rod, a long metal spring that fits into the three hasps. When the key is turned in the lock, it raises the lock-rod out of the way and unlocks all three locks at the same time. When turned the other way, the lock-rod drops into place to lock them. (photo: http://s192.photobucket.com/user/castlegrounds/media/oseberg/volume%202/plate10sm.jpg.html) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 7
Oseberg Chest No. 156 This oak chest is also about four feet long and sixteen inches high. It is 104cm wide, 36.5cm wide at the base and 28cm wide at the top, and it is 41cm high. Only the bottom, back and 2 sides of the chest were found intact, but the basic construction appears to be similar to the construction of Oseberg Chest No. 149. The lid was attached by four hinges, two rings of which are still attached the the back of the chest. The other 2 hinges can be seen from the inside of the chest. The chest is decorated by iron tin-headed nails set in diagonal patterns. This diagonal pattern of nail-heads is also found in a small wooden casket in Birka Grave 845. (photo: http://s192.photobucket.com/user/castlegrounds/media/oseberg/volume%202/fig65pg121sm.jpg.html) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 8
(photo: http://s192.photobucket.com/user/castlegrounds/media/oseberg/volume%202/fig68pg125sm.jpg.html) Oseberg Chest No. 178 The caption below reads, This little chest was full of grain. (Christensen, Ingstad & Myhre, p. 91) Other books say this chest was full of wild apples. The chest is 62cm long at the top and 66.5cm long at the bottom (~2 feet), while the sides are 21cm wide at the top and 24cm at the bottom (just under 1 foot). The chest is 31cm (~1 foot) high. The lid is attached to the top with 2 iron hinges. A spring lock is set behind the metal plate fixed into the front of the chest. Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 9
Mästermyr Tool Chest The Mästermyr Chest was found by a farmer ploughing a field in 1936. The box contained many woodworking and metalworking tools, along with keys, locks, bells, a cauldron and a fire grate. The four sides of the box are slightly sloped, and the back is attached to the gently curved top with two metal hinges. The chest is held together by wooden pegs. The bottom mortice of the chest joins the sides about 4cm up from the lower edge. (Mästermyr Tool Chest, front view above and open box below from Arwidsson & Berg, plate 1 & page 7.) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 10
The chest is 88cm long at the top and 92cm long at the base, the sides are 24cm wide at the top and 25.6cm wide at the base. It is 24.6cm high. The lock is fitted into the front of the box, covered by a metal plate. (Mästermyr Chest back (above), lock and sketch (below) from Arwidsson & Berg, pl 1 & 15.) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 11
Hedeby Sea Chest The Hedeby sea chest was made of six oak boards. The chest is 52cm (21 inches) in length, 23cm (9 inches) in width, and 27cm (11 inches) in height. The long sides of the chest are curved at the bottom edge, a unique feature. The bottom board of the chest is mortised into the sides, with nails holding it in place. The reproduction to the left shows the nails clearly. The chest s sole decoration is simple line engravings on all four vertical sides. The chest is wider at the base than at the top on all four sides. The top board was made of a half-tree-trunk that had been hollowed out. This would be stronger than a flat board. It is believed that this type of chest served as both storage and seating for Viking oarsmen onboard seagoing ships. The size and shape of this chest resembles the smallest of the Oseberg chests. The chest was found upside down in Hedeby harbor. The hole in the front of the chest is where the lock would have been; the wood bears the marks from it. The chest contained only a large chunk of granite. It is likely the chest was broken into, its contents were stolen, and the damaged chest was dumped overboard, to be found 1,000 years later. (Kalmring, p. 281-2) (photo above right: http://www.geocities.ws/chestsandcaskets/catalogueofextantchestsandcaskets.html) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 12
Voxtorp Chest This pine chest was found in Småland, Sweden. The ironwork on it is in an earlier Norse style, though the chest dates to 1200AD. It is 146cm long or ~5 feet. The sides and top are flat, which is more common in later chests. The lid is connected by four hinges. The chest was locked with padlocks through the two small side hasps and the large central hasp. Church chests were usually ironbound and were used to store money or other valuables. The iron rings were decorative, and also might have helped anchor chains around the chest. (Plath, p. 81) Rydaholm Chest The decorative ironwork on the Rydaholm chest resembles the ironwork on the Roglösa Church door and the Ryssby and Voxtorp chests. The Rydaholm chest also has iron rings set into the decorative ironwork. These three chests were likely made in the same workshop in 1200AD in Småland. Two 13th century ironbound chests from Salisbury Cathedral are very like these three chests in shape and style. (photo: http://www.nvg.org.au/documents/vv/ vv_issue_70.pdf) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 13
Ryssby Chest This ironbound chest resembles the Voxtorp chest and is also from Småland around the year 1200AD. It is a six-board chest sitting low to the ground. The chest has two separate lid pieces. The left side of the chest has three decorative hinges securing the lid to the back, while the right has two plain hinges. Two hasps near the outer edges of the top closed the lid, which was locked with a padlock. (photo below: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catrijn/3590053741/) (photo above: http://www.historicallocks.com/en/site/hl/safes/20-money-chests/medieval-sweden/) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 14
Gamla Uppsala Chest Another 12th century chest from Sweden, the Gamla Uppsala chest is a dugout chest, which means it was made from a hollowed-out log. The log was hollowed out using fire and gouges. Eight iron bands were riveted around the body of the log, and several bands were riveted around the opening of the chest. More iron bands were riveted onto the lid, and 6 hinges were added to connect the lid to the back. There were 4 iron straps that looped over 7 hasps, so it is assumed this chest was locked with 7 separate locks. The 13th century Tickhill, Yorkshire, chest is also a dugout chest, though it is more oblong in shape. The use of dugout logs for furniture dates back centuries before the Viking Age. Logs have been found that were dug out to make barrels, chairs, chests, and buckets. (photos: http://www.greydragon.org/trips/stockholm/index5.html) Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir (Charlotte Mayhew) crmayhew@comcast.net July 2013 15