Town hall chest. Walnut wood. XVII century.
Rectangular carved chest of walnut wood, with a flat lid, and simple decoration on its fronts with smooth moldings of different widths. It rises slightly from the ground thanks to six legs with a cylindrical die on a flattened circle. On the outside, it has a series of wrought iron fittings (corners with fleur-de-lis finish), two handles on the sides with openwork fittings and, on the front, three key locks with an openwork lock escutcheon decorated with simplified plant elements. Inside, it has a wooden partition on one side and located high up, which consists of a rectangular space with a hinged lid and two small drawers at the bottom. The three keys, made of iron, present their worked and decorated eyes, with simple decorative elements towards that side of the stem or central part and the usual flat blades.
Chests with three locks are also known as “City Hall” or “Council”, because both these and those with two keys were often used by religious, military or civil organizations to store valuable objects and documents, securing them by giving a key. to each person in charge (as many people as locks and keys), so that they had to get together to open the cabinet. In many places in the Spanish territories it was used as a municipal archive, following laws inherited from a pragmatic one of June 9, 1500 with which the Catholic Monarchs forced the Councils of their territories to build town halls, prisons and have an ark of privileges and writings. Despite having been abundant in its time, many examples have not come down to us due to having fallen into disuse and being replaced. Compare with that of the Council of Villafranca de la Marisma (Los Palacios and Villafranca, Seville), that of Valdipiélago (León), that of Matapozuelos (Valladolid), that of the Cabildo of Buenos Aires in Argentina (18th century, following previous models), etc.
Size: 157x64x78 cm. Weight is merely orientative.
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Dimensions:

Height: 30.71 in (78 cm)Width: 61.82 in (157 cm)Depth: 25.2 in (64 cm)

Style:

Baroque(Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

IronOtherWalnut

Place of Origin:

Spain

Period:

17th Century

Date of Manufacture:

17th Century