19th century blanket chest

in Europe, until the end of the Renaissance, the chest (or ark) was an essential and versatile piece of furniture, serving both as a cupboard (laundry chest, crockery chest, grain chest, etc.), as a bench and luggage. Existing with the lord as well as with the bourgeois and the lower classes, it could or could not be equipped with feet and handles or with one or more locks2. In the 16th century, people favored lighter portable chests, replacing solid wood with panel assemblies. The term trunk or briefcase then began to be used for small, light chests1.
In France, the wooden chest was usually lined and painted or covered with worked leather, or in leather similar to large trunks and sometimes cushioned in the back of a donkey, especially from the fifteenth century. Their decorations (metal, ivory, horn, precious wood) were entrusted to cabinetmakers, also referred to as tabletiers. The craftsmen, called huchiers, were part of the guild of carpenters until the sixteenth century1. The corporation of box and trunk makers was created by letters patent from Louis XIV confirming their statutes in November 1595.
Most often in the form of a chest-bench or chest-chest in which linen or crockery is piled up, the chest remained the major piece of furniture in most homes until the middle of the 18th century, a period which saw it gradually disappear in the take advantage of cabinets, cupboards and shelves4.