A Welsh Treasure Box, or Gower Coffor Bach
26th November 2011
This rare box is a delight,
THE GOWER COFFOR BACH.
During the second half of the 18thc century a small group of carved coffers, quite
unlike anything then produced in Wales was made in Gower, a peninsula stretching some 20 miles to the west of Swansea. It is my belief that both the design and the carved decoration on these coffers were introduced from non -Welsh sources. A likely region being the West Country, which traditionally had cultural and commercial ties through sea-borne traffic.
Gower, was, and indeed remains an anglicised part of Wales, following the Norman conquest both Pembrokeshire and Gower were largely divorced from the rest of the country.
For example the dialect of the area was commented upon, in 1696 when a Edward Lluhd commented that ‘wherin doth the English of the vulgar in Pembrokeshire and Gowerland differ from the Western Counties of England. A traveller from the late 18th century was to comment
‘the language of the Gower people was English, the dialect broad and coarse, so that a traveller might fancy himself in the west of England.’
A typical Gower Coffor, now displayed at Kennixton, at the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans, although lacking its original lid and drawer linings, it has all the salient features of this group.
People frequently ask if they had a purpose. They are frequently referred to as Dower Chests,
it is a possibility that they may have been used as part of a dowry. but it is possible that they
were a receptacle for private treasures; things not intended for prying eyes, letters, jewellery, even a bible or prayer book .
Anything that was personal, in an age when servants could be light fingered, or just plain nosy.
A box for treasure.
