Wardrobe
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Wardrobe |
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This wardrobe of painted
and gilded wood, dating from 1875, may be the one originally located in the
day nursery in Tower House. It is inscribed ‘Willielmus Burges Me Fieri
Fecit Anno Salutis MDCCCLXXV’. The main section of the wardrobe is divided into nine panels, arranged in a square grid. Each panel, hinged from below and opening to form a small shelf, is painted with a comic scene relating to the Fall of Adam. In the central panel we find Adam, partially clothed after his expulsion from Paradise. In the panel above him is the Vanquishing Angel. In the other seven panels Adam is presented with suitable items to hide his nakedness: long-johns, stockings, a vest, a shirt, shoes and boots, a cloak, and a hat. |
| The drawers behind these panels can be removed easily from the wardrobe framework, as if designed to be used as chests if required. Below the drawers is a compartment whose hinged cover opens upwards [didn’t check this]. The painted decoration of this cover panel depicts a comic procession of six anthropomorphic toilet articles in medieval costume: a hairbrush, a folded pocket handkerchief, a shaving brush, a cut-throat razor, a dish of shaving soap and a comb. The paintings are thought to be by Frederick Weekes, or to be copies of his work. |  |