An 18th century Channel Islands painted pine dower chest the hinged top with painted design, opening to reveal a candle box, the front with two long drawers, the front and sides with painted green backgrounds decorated with designs of tulips and leaves, set on two cabriole fore supports and two straight back supports, 43in (109cm) wide, 46in (117cm) high, 20in (51cm) deep. Dower chests in the Channel Islands have a long history. When a Le Messurier house in St Pierre du Bois was emptied five years ago a wooden chest, covered in leather and studded in various patterns with dome headed nails, with a mid-17th century date, was found in the loft where it had clearly sat for at least 200 years. The chests, sometimes known as 'coiffres' in the local Guernsey French patois, were usually made of oak in the 17th century, with extensively carved fronts. These are very hardwearing and there are still a significant number of them in the possession of local families. Some of them also have initials and dates, as PN 1689, picked out in flat headed nails on the front of the chest. During the 18th and early 19th centuries there was a fashion for dower chests made of deal and painted with stylised tulip and other floral designs. The wood came from the Baltic and was used in the local ship building industry, and it is possible that the chests were made from 'spare' wood. The tulip and other floral designs are reminiscent of patterns which were popular in England at the time of William and Mary in the late 17th century. These chests, because of the wood from which they were made and because they often stood on a beaten earth floor, tended to disintegrate after a few years and they are now quite rare. The Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery own a chest which it purchased from the Pelham Galleries Ltd., London, in 1994. Its catalogue number is GMAG 1994.39, and the catalogue entry is as follows: A very rare mid 18th century painted dower chest with rising lid, a single drawer beneath the coffer and stand with a drawer with a moulded frieze and faceted cabriole legs, the front decorated with stylised flowers in white and red on a blue ground, the top similarly decorated, bearing its original engraved steel lock plate and engraved brass handles and escutcheons, bearing the initials RBH and dated 1754 The initials probably stand for Rachel or Rebecca Brehaut. This most unusual piece in a very fine state of preservation is characteristic of work produced in the Channel Islands, particularly Guernsey during the mid 18th century. It is clear that a number of craftsmen producing this type of work emigrated to America, particularly Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the present example is almost indistinguishable from the finest American work of this period. The National Trust of Guernsey Folk Museum own two painted dower chests, both of which were given to the museum by local families.