A Tudor cupboard at Cotehele, Cornwall

Abstract

The presence of the remains of a Tudor cupboard displayed at Cotehele (Cornwall) has for many years been explained by the marriage of Catherine, the widow of Sir Gruffydd ap Rhys (the son of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, a leading figure in south Wales during the reigns of both Henry VII and Henry VIII) to Sir Piers Edgcumbe in 1523; thus dating this piece of furniture to the 1520s. By contrast, costume experts have always considered that the piece should date to the middle or later sixteenth century. This paper links the Cotehele cupboard to other pieces of carved work from the Welsh March in Shropshire—at Lower Spoad Farm, near Clun and in the church at Llanfair Waterdine—suggests an association with two of the major landowners there, the earls of Arundel and Shrewsbury; and places the cupboard in the context of Queen Mary's reign.