A chest is one of the oldest forms of furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

. It is typically a rectangular structure with four walls and a liftable lid, for storage. The interior space may be subdivided. The early uses of an Antique

Antique furniture

Antique furniture is the term for collectible interior furnishings of considerable age. Often its age, rarity, condition, utility, or other unique features makes a piece of furniture desirable as a collectors' item, and thus termed an "antique"....

 chest or coffer included storage of fine cloth, weapon

Weapon

A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...

s, foods and valuable items.

A cassone

Cassone

Among furniture in Italy, a cassone or marriage chest is a rich and showy type of chest, which may be inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded. The cassone was one of the trophy furnishings of rich merchants and aristocrats in Italian culture, from the Late Middle Ages...

 is a kind of carved or painted chest associated with late Medieval and Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Cassones, also called marriage chest

Cassone

Among furniture in Italy, a cassone or marriage chest is a rich and showy type of chest, which may be inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded. The cassone was one of the trophy furnishings of rich merchants and aristocrats in Italian culture, from the Late Middle Ages...

s, were often used to carry the dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

 goods in a marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 ceremony.

In Medieval and early Renaissance times in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 low chests were often used as benches while taller chests were used as side tables. By placing a chest on the side on any kind of rough table, the inner surface of its lid could be used as a proper writing surface while the interior could house writing implements and related materials, as was the case with the Bargueno desk

Bargueno desk

The Bargueño is a desk first produced in the 15th century that continues to be produced to this day. The only other style of desk which is known to have been continuously produced for so long is the trestle desk, but some authorities exclude this desk from consideration because in early times it...

 of Spain. Many early Portable desk

Portable desk

The portable desk has not one but many forms. In a sense, the portable desk is a long-lost ancestor of the portable computer, and the modern laptop could be considered an atavistic grandchild of the 19th-century Lap desk....

s were stacked chests, with the top one having its lid on the side, to serve as a writing surface when opened.

In fantasy, fables, and games, "treasure chest

Treasure Chest

Treasure Chest was a Catholic-oriented comic book series created by Dayton, Ohio publisher George A...

s" are frequently used as a plot device to contain treasure

Treasure

Treasure is a concentration of riches, often one which is considered lost or forgotten until being rediscovered...

 such as gold or jewels. These are often a reward for a protagonist, or in some stories a form of MacGuffin

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...

, a literary device which exists solely to drive forward a plot.

A "toy chest" is a type of chest that usually carries children's toy

Toy

A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...

s, like dolls or building blocks.

See also

• Chest of drawers
  Chest of drawers
  A chest of drawers, also called a dresser or a bureau, is a piece of furniture that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers stacked one above another...
  
  , a piece of furniture often referred to as a chest.
• Hope chest
  Hope chest
  A hope chest, dowry chest, cedar chest, or glory box is a chest used to collect items such as clothing and household linen, by unmarried young women in anticipation of married life....
  
  
• Trunk
  Trunk (luggage)
  A trunk, also known as a travelling chest, is a large cuboid container for holding clothes and other personal belongings, typically about wide, and each deep and high. They were most commonly used for extended periods away from home, such as for boarding school, or long trips abroad...
  
  , a piece of luggage, similar to a chest

External links

• ARTESO, Reproductions of piece of furniture and arts of the Middle Ages.