Elizabeth I joined oak press cupboard

Early Elizabeth I joined oak press cupboard. Rare in form, long and low in design with the lower section looking like a pure English renaissance cupboard, with a new pattern from the Elizabethan period above, but this cupboard is one piece.

The workshop making this cupboard was on the cusp of change in design when producing this piece. The lower section of cupboards with heavy framed panels with guilloche carved stiles and rails with applied badges showing a single cross and a latin inscription OMNIS SPES INDEO EST running the length of the cupboard between the cupboard doors, this translates to ALL HOPE IS IN GOD.

The upper section of the cupboard with its new design with arcaded panels within the heavy framed panelled doors and flanking applied buttresses in a typical Elizabethan fashion and the turned columns which are very similar to that of the very early Elizabethan treen standing cups circa 1550 – 1560 (one example shown in the Burrell collection in Scotland)

Interesting note: the back boards have extensive traces of the original green and red paint that would have covered the whole item when it was new. Also they have reused unfinished carved panels both on the back and the inside of the cupboard, a normal practice in the 16th and 17th century.

The cupboard is in very good condition for it age, the normal repairs you would expect  to the feet with the rear one tipped.