coffer, in furniture, most commonly a portable container for valuables, clothes, and other goods, used from the Middle Ages onward. It was normally a wooden box covered in leather, studded with nails, and fitted with carrying handles. The top was commonly rounded so that rain would run off (the leather covering often increased protection). Sometimes the leather was decorated with incised patterns, painting, or gilding, but more often the closely studded brass-headed nails formed the only ornament, sometimes outlining the owner’s initials or monogram. About the beginning of the 18th century, japanning (oriental-style lacquerwork) was applied to examples with curved tops.