Furniture enjoys a fundamental connection with human life which is not necessarily present to such an extent in other artistic spheres. People move, sit, and lie in certain ways, and these important traits are allied for furniture to be comfortable and useful.

The furniture of the past gives us a true idea of the way people lived. Writing on the subject of different pieces and especially on coffers naturally awakens interest in how our ancestors arranged their rooms centuries ago. The type and shape of the senduq may indicate the wealth and position of a household. The execution of the structure is the evidence of the time, the pursuit of life of the period. The sparseness of most rooms comes as a shock to those who are accustomed to houses of later dates cluttered with the accumulated treasures of generations.

Early furniture was very scarce and its purpose was purely utilitarian: it was not seriously considered as a decorative art until the late 17th century when pieces from this period began to show an improvement in shape, technical construction and ornamentation.

The Maltese senduq is a fairly large box, one of the earliest pieces of furniture and one of the most important items in the home. It was probably introduced into Malta during the Arab rule. Some of these pieces were made of red deal or chestnut and followed the Spanish and Sicilian styles.

The coffer is agreed to be an ancient form of furniture and surviving examples go back in date to the 17th century or earlier. The old ones are simple in design and bear very little in the way of ornament. The earliest chests which had deteriorated with use were replaced by stronger and better ones made for the convenience of those who were to use them. Some examples have lasted to the present day.

Coffers were made in different patterns. Some looked dull and robust; while other pieces were more interesting, complete with thickly moulded patterns at the bottom, carved scaled motifs, and high bun feet. These types were generally finished with iron escutcheons.

There were the more elaborate ones which also showed refined simplicity, comprising of two or three panels on the front, adding a different touch of exclusiveness. Particular coffers were made of chestnut with a scaled design on the edge of the front panel and occasionally the scaled motif ran all the way along the bottom moulding and below the rim.

Renaissance influences which appeared in scaled motifs on early coffers revealed more or less the period and standard of the piece. This kind of decoration was still popular well into the eighteenth century. It also became a characteristic of expensive coffers.

Another type was the provincial coffer in red or white deal fitted with handmade locks and matching escutcheons which included the large muftieh. This piece can be referred to as genuine Maltese. The bun feet were made from the same wood as the front. The back legs were made of two plain pieces of wood nailed to the back; this was due to the fact that the craft of wood turning was still in its initial stages. The legs served to raise the furniture from the flagstone floors.

These coffers were always considered as storage pieces serving a variety of uses: to keep things in, to put things on, to sit and even sleep on. At the time, especially in the villages it was an item associated with the bedroom and everyday life. No wonder that the master of the house often slept on the hard coffer! He made sure that the family savings were safe in the small compartment inside. What suffered really was the lid. It became warped and stained from the heat of the body.

According to a Maltese custom, the senduq, like the linen, formed part of the dowry and was given by the father to his daughter marrying or joining a religious order. Maltese nuns were also entitled to a dowry which included a white deal and painted coffer as furniture in the convent.

But the senduq made for everyday purposes and for less exalted clients still aspired to the same standards, even if designs were simplified and decoration less lavish. By the mid 17th century these austere styles were losing their appeal and new designs emerged.

With the arrival of the British, Malta underwent rapid social changes, and the colonial influence changed the island’s outlook. The spread of foreign tastes was quick, and within a couple of years their fashions were adopted in Malta. Perhaps it was at this point that the senduq, after all quite a dull item compared to other lovely, colourful pieces, was moved to inconspicuous halls. It was also a village custom to have the coffer and hall chairs, which became a legalised form of hall decorations and still are to the present day.

Over the past decade there has been on the island a great interest in recreating period décor in various degrees of accuracy. For most people today, the main question is how to combine old and new sympathetically.

During the 18th century more attention was paid to comfort. Relatively sparse furnishings gave way to well-appointed rooms with every convenience and awareness to period fashions. A quantity of chests of drawers were produced matching more easily with the rest of the bedroom furniture. The chest of drawers evolved from the simple coffer, the front and lid divided into recessed panels. Drawers were added underneath the chest and soon after the whole piece of furniture became the casing fitted with drawers – the chest of drawers as we know it today.

The 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries rediscovered past tastes. Craftsmen exploited their talents in this medium and heightened their creations with decorative carved effects from earlier periods as far as they were considered in keeping with the style of late 19th and 20th centuries. It became very fashionable to add carved panels generally of naval battle scenes or sprays of floral decorations on the front and sides of coffers made during the 17th century.

The senduq is a craftsmanship pioneer and a unique contribution to early homes.

In the 18th century hall benches were mainly found in entrance halls, reminiscent of the coffers. They exhibit the more elaborate, decorative development of colour and design, proclaiming baroque and rococo influences. These were generally made in pairs and unlike the coffer designed to rest directly on the floor. The taste for painted furniture was a perfect background for the owner’s coat of arms on the back. In the case of benches in monasteries, the arms belonged to the order.

Such pieces were, however, fairly rare and limited mostly to ecclesiastical buildings and to the wealthiest on the island.

Modern technology which has given us bright light at the flick of a switch made it easy to take such comforts for granted and it is hard to imagine what life would be without them. There is no escaping the fact that earlier centuries were authentically uncomfortable in respect of light, heating and many other necessities. Therefore candles were of utmost importance in homes and definitely in churches.

Churches, especially large ones, needed a good amount of candles both for the clergy and for general use. Confraternities of different religious organisations had large numbers of fratelli, some of which were medieval unions of different craftsmen. Candles of various sizes were specifically made for high altars, which had two layers of candlesticks for formal ceremonies. They were also extensively used in processions. At the same time, the decorative traditional candlesticks were usually found standing on the floors. Iron and wooden stands had their sconces filled with blazing candle lights. These were placed in front of paintings dedicated to the Madonna or to the saints.

The skills and ingenuity of craftsmen were expressed in numerous pieces of furniture, many of which were intensely practical. Problems of function were solved with elegance and attention to shape. This trend is seen in the making of coffer-like boxes, and these were devised to accommodate different activities. Most church sacristies were furnished with several types of candle boxes. Choir seats used by the altar boys served the same purpose. These boxes as a whole echoed the early coffers in style with a difference that these were laid flat on the floor and rested on three plain supports.

Some examples were well designed, painted and decorated with the arms of the religion and Maltese crosses. A few of these items are still preserved at the Museum of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. Smaller churches had inferior boxes made of red deal and generally painted in shades of brown or beige.

The narrow long boxes were structured for the extra long candles used for the prima tier of high altars, while candles for vows were placed in small squat boxes. Some of the cheaper candles lit in front of statues of saints in niches smoked and guttered giving an uneven flickering light.

Other attractive types were the upright boxes without lids and with a devisor known as lembut. They were scalloped and richly painted with crowns, crosses and floral motifs. The candles were placed in an upright position in the boxes, then collected and replaced after each procession.

Both elegant and simple boxes were fitted with one or more locks and external iron hinges. They also included iron lifting handles on the sides to be moved and carried around.

Today most churches are adopting sham candles worked with springs, and boxes are hardly used any more. Many have been discarded and what is left of them, in general, has become quite rare.

Joseph Galea-Naudi and Denise Micallef are the authors of Antique Maltese Furniture and Guide to Maltese Furniture.

This article first appeared in the Easter 1995 issue of Treasures of Malta, which is published by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti. Treasures of Malta is a magazine about art and culture which is published three times a year, and is available from all

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