Set of Twelve Elizabethan Painted Trenchers, England 16th century

Rare Set of Twelve Elizabethan Painted Trenchers (‘Roundels’)

English, late 16th century

Measurements
Each approx. 13.5 cm diameter.
Box: 15.8 cm diameter; 5.8 cm high.

A complete set of twelve sycamore trenchers, each finely painted with a central ‘poesie’ in blackletter script within gilt and polychrome floral borders, protected by remnants of their original lacquer. The verses, witty and moralising, address themes of marriage, fortune, and folly. Originally used face-down at table, the trenchers were turned over at the banquet’s conclusion when the inscriptions were read or sung, a practice noted by George Puttenham in The Arte of English Poesie (1589).

The set survives in its original turned sycamore box, the underside of the lid bearing the collection label of Owen Evan-Thomas (no. 534).

Provenance
• Owen Evan-Thomas, before 1932.
• A.H. Isher & Son, Cheltenham, by 1945 (invoice dated 10 November 1945).
• Dr Jim R.K. Thomson, O.B.E., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. (1890–1960), acquired 1945.
• Thence by descent.

Condition
Good overall; two with small edge losses. Paint generally well-preserved with minor wear, retaining much original gilding and polychromy. Box lid restored where central roundel once broke loose.

Literature
• Owen Evan-Thomas, Domestic Utensils of Wood (1932), pp. 64–65, pls. 24–25 (this set illustrated).
• E.H. Pinto, Treen and Other Wooden Bygones (1979), pp. 79–80, pl. 77.