Chests have remained the most popular piece of furniture used by the Adyg people for many centuries to keep their most valuable possessions like ancient weapons, their best clothes and bed linen. Such chests traditionally stood against the wall. They came in various sizes with small ones – like the one on display here – rarely exceeding 30 to 60 centimeters in height, while large ones could easily be 120 centimeters high. 

In Cirkassia, chests were manufactured primarily from ‘’beneficial’ wood, mostly from oak, ash, beech, or willow wood.

Artfully designed copper on-lays were conventionally used for chest ornament. The chest would be covered by thin metal bands forming a check pattern.

This chest exhibit – Phuante – was considered small. It was used to keep needlework implements, finished gold-embroidery decorative components, and small items decorated with such embroidery.

From time immemorial, needlework proficiency was considered an essential skill every Adygeyan girl should have. Their training would begin in childhood, at six or seven years of age, and once the young mistress of needlework has mastered gold embroidery, essentially all the items she decorated would be stored in a chest as gifts to her future husband and his relation. Those items would make up a core component of the girl’s dowry. By tradition, the dowry would be collected in secret, hidden from strangers. When the bride was about to leave home, all her garments and jewelry would be put in that same chest, and the bride would take it with her to the groom’s house.