Chests, in human history, have been around since someone first had the bright idea of putting a lid on a box. How clever! For a long time, in many places, a chest was the only piece of furniture in a house - used not only for storage but as a place to sit and even to sleep. They weren't very comfortable, but at least they kept you off the cold floor and the bugs.
Many early chests were made from hollowed-out logs, but Fine Woodworking magazine points out that this isn't a very good way to construct a piece of furniture - it tends to crack quite easily under weight. It wasn't until the Middle ages that security became a more important consideration in chest design, and people started making metal edgings.
Not long afterwards, chests diversified into all kinds of categories - "coffers" for storing valuables, "trunks" for travelling, "cassones" in Renaissance Italy for carrying the dowry goods in a marriage ceremony. In the Arab world, a "muqaddimah" held a bride's personal posessions, while in Ukraine chests were a valuable heirloom - an indicator of a peasant family's wealth.
As carpentry skills improved over the centuries, chests began getting more and more complicated. First, a drawer was installed below the main compartment, then the entire main compartment was replaced with drawers - which is why the modern furniture item is called a "chest of drawers". Bet you didn't realise there was so much to know about chests!
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