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The box is profusely mounted by highly ornate brass strapwork with elaborate escutcheon,
brass latch and lock to the front and folding carrying handles to the sides. The lid opens to an interior veneered with brazilianrosewood and the lid contains two hinged doors with brass bolts that open to shallow compartments, probably for documents, they each conceal two secret compartments. To the sides of the box, two covers conceal a pair of steel screws which were intended to secure the box to the floor of one’s apartments or to the floor of the carriage when travelling. A brass bolt releases the fall front which reveals a pair of drawers and also conceals a further three secret compartments.The mahogany stand was made at a later date to display the casket as a piece of furniture, the legs are chamferred and moulded, the frieze with blind fretwork in the Chinese Chippendale style of the mid 18th century period. A very similar casket but of walnut veneers and on a later gilt stand with cabriole legs is in the Duchess of Lauderdale’s bedroom at Ham House and was recorded as being there in the 1683 inventory.
Strong boxes such as these fulfilled an important function in keeping money, valuables and documents secure when travelling and in 17th century houses where their was very little privacy; such rare and valuable caskets were potent symbols of the wealth and importance of their owners. Brazilian kingwood is a member of the rosewood family and is so known because it was the favoured wood of French kings for their furniture.
Rare and valuable, this magnificent kingwood strong box dates to circa 1670-1700 and may either be English or Continental. However, both the V & A and the National Trust suggest that the ones in their inventories are English. It has descended through the Seagrave family for several generations after it was given to a member of that family in the early 1800s. It is conjecture that it may well have been a gift from the Earl of Northampton in recognition of friendship and loyalty. The Seagraves were a family of clerics living at Whatcote and variously close by in the locality of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire for a number of generations, with two of them being appointed chaplains to the Compton family, the Marquises of Northampton. Edward and his son John served in that capacity between 1774 and 1836 both at Castle Ashby and Compton Wynyates, Northampton’s seat and country residence at that time. The latter is still currently the private home of the Compton family. John Seagrave was presented to Castle Ashby by the Marquis of Northampton in 1805, following the death of the former incumbent, his father Edward. Edward’s father, Samuel, was to become the first in a long line of gentlemen from the family to graduate with an M.A. from either Oxford or Cambridge, his being from Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1727. His sons and grandsons followed suit in both the 18th and 19th centuries, with M.A.s from various Oxford University colleges, notably Magdalen Hall, University, Worcester and Christ Church. As well as being rectors at Castle Ashby, the Seagrave family were patrons and rectors of the parish of Westcote Barton in Oxfordshire for a large part of the 19th century.
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