An interesting trunk depicting an important time and place in history.

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]This is a very very interesting naively painted walnut trunk that has a story to tell that is testament to a specific place and a time an important place and time in history.

[00:00:24]Now as you can see the chest or trunk is what you would call country made. It's not a sophisticated piece of furniture.

[00:00:37]Um it's made out of two boards to the top linked by these three bracing bars.

[00:00:49]You've got applied molding to the top edge just to give a seal when it's closed.

[00:00:59]But um it's not a sophisticated piece of furniture but it's a very interesting piece of furniture.

[00:01:08]And of course what's interesting about it is the naive painting to the trunk.

[00:01:17]And we are sure that the paintings are of Scutari Barracks Hospital.

[00:01:30]Scutari Barracks Hospital were um on the Bosphorus opposite Constantinople then called Istanbul and it took a lot of the wounded and the ill of the British Army from the conflict of the Crimean War.

[00:01:51]Now why do we think that um it's from Scutari Hospital? Well you'll see these pictures which I'm just about to put up which was previously owned by an officer who fought in the Crimea called Henry Stratton Bush.

[00:02:13]And he was an officer of the 41st the Welsh Regiment of Foot.

[00:02:17]And he painted them in 1854.

[00:02:20]And a lot of the scenery the trees uh that he painted surrounding uh Scutari Hospital and the hospital itself are very similar to um the uh the landscape paintings on either end of the trunk.

[00:02:48]Now, the British Army in the Crimea quite frankly although they were valiant on the battlefield um their logistics and their supplies were an absolute mess.

[00:03:07]The Quartermaster General, Lord Airey, was quite frankly appalling at his job.

[00:03:13]Um they suffered a very harsh winter due to the fact that they didn't have the proper clothing, they didn't have enough food. Generally, the supply chain was absolutely appalling.

[00:03:29]Well, of course, this had consequences and it led to an awful lot of disease and death.

[00:03:39]And these people had to be looked after and a lot of them were sent to Scutari Hospital.

[00:03:44]But the conditions in the hospital were appalling.

[00:03:47]It was built over broken sewer.

[00:03:50]It was completely overcrowded. Um the were far too close together.

[00:03:56]Dirty clothing was a mess. It was left where it fell in the hospital.

[00:04:03]And it was not conducive to the patients getting better. Well, Florence Nightingale went out with 38 nurses to the Crimea in November 1854.

[00:04:19]And despite pushback from the medical officers, the army officers at the hospital, the first thing she did was to um sort out the sanitation and the hygiene in hospital. She gave the hospital with her nurses a thoroughly good clean.

[00:04:38]She set up a laundry just for the patients and for their bedding. And she set up a kitchen for them as well so that they could be nourished with proper food and they could live in clean conditions.

[00:04:56]And this trunk, especially if you look at the front, and I'm going to add close-up photograph so you can see much better.

[00:05:06]Shows um two panels of three beds each.

[00:05:14]And you can see that they are a good space apart. Before Florence got there, apparently the beds were only about 1 ft apart. They look like they're about a yard or a meter apart from each other now.

[00:05:29]Um the rooms look clean. They look well-kempt.

[00:05:37]If we tip up the top we can see there is a scene here of a nurse looking after a patient in bed.

[00:05:47]He's got netting around, perhaps to stop mosquitoes or whatever. There's another patient sat by the window.

[00:05:57]There's a hip bath there for cleaning.

[00:06:00]And on the other panel, you've got um a stretcher being carried in by soldiers to the hospital.

[00:06:12]So, our feeling is that this trunk, which might be French, possibly Sardinian, possibly local, possibly Turkish, um was painted by a convalescing patient. And he had the time uh while he was getting better to paint what he saw in front of him.

[00:06:40]And what he saw in front of him was a hospital that Florence Nightingale had completely turned around from a place that was um adding to the suffering of the patients to a place that aided their um well-being and helped them get better.

[00:07:07]And not only did she and her nurses do that, but they also offered a lot of comfort to the patients. Uh many of the soldiers couldn't write, so they wrote letters for them home, dictated by the soldiers. Um she was called the Lady of the Lamp because she was um tireless in her work. She would often be seen working through the night looking after the patients. Um And of course, that was the start of the way of a change in the way that nurses were perceived and the work that they were given to do. And when Florence got back to England, of course, um she uh demanded inquiries and change happened. And if I read out um some statistics here about the Crimean War and the difference before Florence got there.

[00:08:10]Out of the 22,180 soldiers who died in the Crimean War, um only 4,780 were killed from fighting.

[00:08:23]Over 17,400 died from disease.

[00:08:29]And of course, um the public were quite aware of this or they're becoming more aware of this because it was the first war which was really covered in greater depth by the newspapers. Um William Howard Russell of The Times was out there.

[00:08:47]And he reported, um to quote, on the conditions, "There's no attention paid to decency or cleanliness. The smell is appalling."

[00:08:58]Um soldiers were dying from cholera and dysentery and the really harsh conditions. A lot of them really suffered over the winter from the cold because of lack of warm clothing or proper tents or huts.

[00:09:14]And this is a document, this trunk, to the changes that um Florence brought to the situation.

[00:09:24]Um let's spin it around so you can see.

[00:09:31]And again, you know, I'm posting images and it's on our website so you can see.

[00:09:39]We can see the back of the trunk.

[00:09:41]It has had a bit of woodworm in the past, which is sorted now, but you can see from the back the construction more and the the country qualities of its make.

[00:10:08]Now, we're going to date this naive painting.

[00:10:13]And sadly, we don't know the name of the soldier who painted it.

[00:10:21]But given the conditions that are illustrated in the hospital, it's got to be after Florence Nightingale arrived, um which was November 1854, and the end of the war. So, we would date the painting to between 1855 and 1856, and the trunk um much earlier in date. It's on our website with lots of photographs that you can zoom in on and have a look at.

[00:10:51]But it really is a fascinating insight in to one of the first wars that was documented in the press and actually brought home to the public the harsh reality of what a war can bring.