Carved wooden panel depicting Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale: 15th century

Carved wooden panel depicting Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale'. This carved panel, made of elmwood, is part of the front of a chest - the recess for a lock can be seen top left. It is carved with scenes from the story told by Geoffrey Chaucer in his 'Canterbury Tales' as 'The Pardoner's Tale'. Three friends find a hoard of treasure, and fall out over the division of it. The lefthand panel shows one man buying wine for the others, in which he puts poison. In the central panel the other two attack him and stab him to death. In the righthand panel the murderous pair sit down and drink the poisoned wine. The moral of the story is "radix malorum est cupiditas" - "greed is the root of evil".