Very recently I won an auction of an Armada Chest. I first saw one of these in Florida when I was around 13 and have always wanted a pirates chest. When it came up on Invaluable I couldn't resist. George and I were glued to the computer screen and saw the price climbing ever closer to our maximum bid. The inevitable happened and we were outbid. I asked to put in one more, and we just made it before the auctioneer said sold. The competing bidder gave up and we walked away with a real deal.
Our chest measures 82cm x 42cm x 40cm and weighs in at around 200 pounds. Like most chests of this type, it is one massively solid piece of iron. It has 5 locking latches and 3 hooks that hold the lid in place. Unlike many that I have seen on the web this pieces is a solid iron box rather than being made of iron bands. It is reinforced with a number of Iron bands around the outside. Inside the chest is a coffer to hold yet more valuables (How strange is that? Unless these were originally designed to hold clothes....) Sadly, the false cover that hides the key has been rusted into an open position. The locking mechanism here is half missing as is the key. No big deal. We just love the idea of having a 'real' treasure chest. The outer chest has a large number of rivets on it which have been etched to look like flowers. The two handles are turned wrought iron. I can only begin to imagine the amount of work that went into building these. I've found many of them on the internet while researching the history of these things and what I have found makes me even happier we managed to find ours. These things are not cheap! The low end for a rusted one is around $8000. The more finely decorated or painted see double that price and then some. We can live with a botched up inner coffer.
A bit of history on these chests. They were made primarily in Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries. Nuremberg seems to be the main city, but they were also made in Augsburg. There were also a few blacksmiths in Austria, Switzerland, and France that made them. Many were later sent to Holland to be painted with rather intricate designs. They were originally known as a Corsair and later became Armada Chests during Victorian times to add to the illusion that they washed up on shore from wrecked Spanish Armada ships. Chests made in Switzerland had a double wall unlike the single walled German versions. Many of these had more than just a hidden keyhole to open. Some had an elaborate puzzle like opening to them much like a modern sequential discovery puzzle. Most had an ornamental iron plate covering the lock mechanism. Doing a web search, I came across this very interesting webpage that gives a good background on Armada Chests and all things locks.
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| Heavy metal |
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| THAT is a lock! |
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| Internal coffer lock |
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| My pirate and his booty chest |
And now for a sneak peak at a special delivery. Chris Ramasy and his "one of a kind", "very expensive", "largest ever" puzzles have nothing on this. Today we took delivery of an obviously custom made puzzle. It will be revealed at Boca Bash for those who were invited. This one came in two massive crates and weighs in at 1000 pounds of shipping weight. As you can see, it took 5 men to bring each piece into the house. This puzzle will become an immovable object in the Puzzle Palace. It will have pride of place in the void overlooking the swimming pool. I started dreaming of this puzzle when we first bought the house. About 1 1/2 years ago we met the grandson of one of George's golfing friends and as it turned out, he's an artist. One thing lead to another and a rather unique puzzle was born. I'll say no more and will update again on this after the October unveiling.
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| UPS freight delivery |
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| 5 men to bring in each piece |
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| Moving it into place |
And now for the museum update. George and I decided to use Ikea KALLAX boxes to kit out all the walls for puzzle storage. We discovered that we were about 10 quads short and took a drive to Ikea last month to get what was needed. Sadly, I was told they were out of stock in Florida and wouldn't be arriving until late June. This week Monday on a whim George and I drove south again and discovered those missing quads! We purchased them and a few single units so we could get the cabinets all installed and trimmed before the puzzles come in. I returned the next day to pick up a few more single units and a thin bookcase to place in a closet. While I was there, I looked for the KALLAX quads and boy am I glad we went the night we did. All were gone yet again. These are very popular cases I guess. I'm happy to say we now have all of them mounted to the wall and 95% of them are trimmed out.
I've Roxified (color coded) the container manifesto and have purchased matching colored stickers so I can label the boxes as they are removed from the container. This will help us to place each box in the room the puzzles will be stored in. We are ready to bring in the puzzles now. The little bit that we have left to do can be finished at any time. All work was stopped at the museum on Thursday to install that mystery puzzle at Puzzle Palace.
The final container has been delayed by a day. It now should arrive sometime today.
Finally, after looking at the dates that most blogs are posted, I've discovered they come out on Saturday and Sunday. In an attempt to allow puzzlers to read all blogs, I'm slowly shifting the date of release backwards. Our plan for the future is to continue the weekly museum progress update. We also plan to have a weekly in-depth post about one puzzle-much like I've been doing here. George also has a few surprises in store. Stay tuned.
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