Photograph: Carved wooden panel depicting Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale. On the left a man buys wine from an inn. In the centre the man is stabbed by 2 other men. On the right the 2 men sit at a table and drink wine.
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Chest

Date: about 1410

This carved panel, made of elmwood, is part of the front of a chest - the recess for a lock can be seen top left. It is carved with scenes from the story told by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales as 'The Pardoner's Tale'. Three friends find a hoard of treasure, and fall out over the division of it. The panel shows one buying wine for the others, in which he puts poison; the other two attack him and stab him to death; then they sit down and drink the poisoned wine. The moral of the story is 'radix malorum est cupiditas' - 'greed is the root of evil'.

Accession number: 75.2

Place made: England?

Place of collection: Suffolk [old house in Suffolk?]

Material: wood

Measurements: H 490 mm; W 985 mm; T 35 mm; WT 7 kg

Gallery location: Case 16.1

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Related material

Subjects:

Crime
Dress

Objects:

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