Chests

The kutxa (chest) is one of the most representative objects of Basque furniture. Common to all homes, they were used to store a range of items including bedlinen and food (garai-kutxa in the case of wheat, gazi-kutxa for salted food). When used to store grain, the seed for the next year's crop was kept in the inner drawer (kutxatila); in clothes chests, the drawer was used to store documents and items of value. Clothes chests were more elaborately decorated, since they often formed part of the dowry. They were commonly kept in the bedroom.

Outside the home, other kutxas were used to store money or documents and they were common in guilds and other institutions. Churches had kutxas for storing tithe grain and other donations. These large chests were known as "diezmeros" (tithe chests). The kutxas of the fishermen's guilds of Hondarribia (Gipuzkoa) and Lekeitio (Bizkaia) were used in ceremonial rituals and have now become part of the folk heritage of the two towns.

Bibliography:

Peña Santiago, Luis Pedro. Arte popular vasco. 3ª ed. San Sebastián: Txertoa, D.L. 1971. 117-129.

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