The ‘Beggar’s Mantle Fring’d with Gold’ that is the East Neuk and its string of coastal burghs enjoyed a period of prosperity in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries – and this is reflected in what survives of its carved oak furniture.What does remain is very distinctive in its vocabulary of motifs and carving style.

This talk is a detective story, in which David Jones puts together evidence for a furniture-making workshop that flourished between 1590 and 1630, examining pieces that have been found in places as far apart as Anstruther and Anglesey.