small chest, called Kunstschrank, was made in the sixteenth century and later; these usually contained a number of drawers and compartments, and are architectural in design. Cabinetmakers, goldsmiths, enamellers, and metal engravers were all employed on these intricate developments of the chest.

The Coffer.-The marriage chest has a value of its own, but the coffer was the rich man's strong box. The coffer came into being when man first designed to conceal his wealth from the prying eyes of his neighbour or from the pilfering fingers of his servants. Prior to that he had contented himself with burying treasure in the ground, as is the custom in the East, in earthen jars. But this had many disadvantages; he was apt to be too careful of his selection of a secret spot that he himself forgot its bearings, or his private visits to his hoard were observed by others.

The coffer was designed to hold bullion. Bound with iron bands, and having iron studs and a grave-looking lock, it has a forbidding mien. It was no ornament to be kept in the hall or the withdrawing room; its home was in some damp vault or other hiding-place. The word coffer has a pleasing sound in the mouth, it suggests golden doubloons and ropes of pearls. It has quite a royal significance; the cofferer of the King's Household was no mean person. "The lining of his coffers shall make coats to deck our

soldiers for these Irish wars," says Shakespeare in Richard II. There is mystery lurking in the coffer. It is an ignis fatuus to lure men across quagmire and desert. The lust for gold and the search for the abracadabra of other men's hoards has inflamed prince and commoner alike. From the days when Charles V of Spain held the Netherlands, Burgundy, Austria, and half of Italy, wars have swept Europe from end to end. German and Austrian, Spanish and French troops have in turn carried fire and sword across conquered territories. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century central Europe has been a cockpit of carnage. Whole armies of ill-fed and ill-paid mercenaries were loosed upon a civil population; hungry and ragged hordes appeared outside the walls of rich cities in the days when war, though less scientific, stalked more naked and unashamed than it does now. Marauders and freebooters, gamblers and despoilers, were ever afoot to rob the fat traders of their hoarded treasure, and rich burghers had indescribable tortures applied to them to extort the secret of their hidden wealth and extract from them the key of their coffers.

In making a comparison between the casket and the coffer it may be noted that the casket was for personal use and was of smaller dimensions, and when it possessed a handle it was at the top so that it could be easily carried by the owner. On the other hand the coffer was usually of

massive form and had two heavy handles, one at each side, so that two persons are necessary to carry it, and it was solidly constructed to bear a great weight. There are exceptions, for instance in some forms of casket, especially when made of steel, the handles were at the side, as in the casket illustrated on page 57. But the coffer invariably has two solid handles, whether it is of wood, heavily bound with iron, or whether, as is frequently the case in later German, Flemish and Dutch examples, it is of solid iron or steel.

There is a type which passes as Spanish, and is often ascribed to the days of the Spanish Armada; how many Spanish coffers did actually come ashore in the West of England, or in Scotland or in Ireland, is not recorded. It is possible that there is authentic evidence concerning them, but the usual examples assigned to that glorious failure are found upon close examination to be of German origin, and frequently a century later in date. At the Tudor Exhibition held in London in 1890, several Spanish treasure chests were on view. One was said to have come out of the Santa Anna, a flagship of the Armada, captured and brought into Weymouth.

Between the years 1522 and 1526 Hans Lützelburgher cut his unrivalled wood blocks reproducing the designs of Holbein in the Dance of Death series. The inimitable genius of Holbein has won the highest praise from Ruskin, who says "his Dance of Death is the most energetic

and telling of all the forms given, in this epoch, to the Rationalist spirit of reform, preaching the new gospel of Death. . . . Against the rich, the luxurious, the Pharisee, the false lawyer, the priest, and the unjust judge, Holbein uses his fiercest mockery; but he is never himself unjust."

In reproducing Der Rychman it is possible to illustrate three forms of coffer then in use. There is the taller wooden coffer with handles; there is the flat-topped variety, metal bound and having padlocks; and there is the arch-topped example, similarly metal bound, with hasp for padlock. It is evidently from this unpadlocked coffer that the rich man has temporarily extracted his hoard, possibly for audit. Death, the greatest Auditor of all, has intervened to close the account. It is finished. The sixteenth-century prototype of his race holds up his hands in acknowledging defeat, and one may imagine his awful cry of "Kamerad." It is the eternal message, "Thou fool! This night shall thy soul be required of thee."

The coffer was in universal use. It is found in various forms and, owing to the evident care which was taken of it, many early examples still remain. The Bavarian coffer of the fifteenth century is of somewhat primitive form and has iron bands with studs. There is in the escutcheon and the circular terminals of the bands a pleasing attempt at floral decoration. It is heavily constructed with four plank legs (illustrated p. 53).