Antique Chest Of Drawers

CHESTS  dressing
The dressing chest appears to be a Victorian invention and, although out of favour for some years, it was quite a good idea. The addition of a mirror to a normal chest of drawers was a quite common form but
sometimes the chest top was modified into a minor dressing table top with small drawers and cubby holes. A lot of such chests have had the mirrors removed to convert them into ordinary chests of drawers, but the
pine dressing chest appears to be less subject to such modification.
Two pine dressing chests with characteristic, shaped cresting rails to the mirrors, also shown under Pine Furniture, as 382. 1890-1920
A bamboo and rattan dressing chest with a small drawer under the mirror and three long drawers below. Decorative and now quite fashionable. 1890-1900
An Edwardian pedimented dressing chest, available in a stained oak or mahogany colour, with the characteristic broken pediment to the top rail of the mirror. The top of the chest has been fitted with two
small drawers under a shelf. 1900-1920
An oak dressing chest known as a ‘combination’ chest due to the tiled splashback to the washstand section, the swing mirror and the cupboard, with a towel rail to the side. A combination of washstand and  dressing chest or table with incised grooving across the drawers.  1900-1920
A white enamelled chest with mirror between turned uprights. Many such chests have had the mirror removed and been treated to the pine stripper’s caustic tank.
Another ‘combination’ chest, this time white enamelled, with tiled splash-back and towel rail. Note the shaped cresting rails above mirror and splash-back.
A dressing chest from Percy Wells’ book on furniture for small houses of 1920. The form is simplified but stiffer and rather Spartan. Utilitarian, yes; cheerful, no.
CHESTS  military
A mahogany military chest fitted with a secretaire drawer. This secretaire arrangement can be extended for the whole drawer length or confined to a smaller central section as shown here. 1845-1865
A military chest on turned feet. These chests were used by army officers up to the 1870s. The flush-fitting drawer handles and brass-reinforced corners are their characteristic features, as are the carrying handles to each half. Usually made in mahogany, but padouk, cedar and camphorwood examples are found. Now much reproduced in a variety of woods, including ‘distressed’ yew veneers and available in large quantities in
reproduced form. There is not a lot of difference in price between reproductions and 19th century examples.
1800-1870
A camphorwood military secretaire chest of Anglo-Indian origin. This example is slightly more ornate than usual, since it includes a wooden gallery rail around the top which incorporates scrolled carving for
decoration. The style of the carving derives from rococo ornamentation of earlier Victorian popularity. The central secretaire section contains a fitted interior. The brass reinforcing plates at the joints and the flush
handles are characteristic and the turned feet are removable. A high quality version in a desirable wood.
CHESTS  Wellington and specimen
A figured walnut secretaire Wellington chest with the usual turned wooden drawer knobs. Again there is a sub-classical scroll at the top of the locking side flaps like that used on 302. Similarly, the third and fourth
drawers conceal a secretaire section and are on false front which lowers to act as writing surface. The wood surfaces are more decorative and lighter in tone  hence the higher price. 1850-1880
Wellington chests should more correctly be called specimen chests, since that is what they are for. Why the Great Duke’s name has been used for them is not clear; he was an inventive man, although he disliked
inventors, but there does not seem to be any record of his hand in their design. The lockable flaps, which hold the drawers in place, might make the piece a useful campaign item but when Loudon illustrated a similar chest in 1833 the Duke had not campaigned for nearly twenty years. The type was long-lived, being illustrated by Smee (1850), Shoolbred (1876) and Light (1881).
A rather plain Wellington chest of sub-classical Loudon-like design made in mahogany. The third and fourth ‘drawers’ down are in fact false; the fronts are trompe-l’oeil on a single flap which lowers for a writing surface, revealing secretaire fittings inside.
A Wellington chest in feathered satinwood with ebony stringing lines. There is a brass gallery rail around the top. Furniture in woods with ’satin’ finishes is often associated with Holland & Sons who produced items in this style in the 1850s and 1860s.
A carved oak ‘Wellington’ chest with lion-mask carved handles to the drawers. A version of the popular form of Wellington or specimen chest which meets the vogue for carved oak furniture of medieval appearance
which started in the 1880s.
Not really anything to do with Wellington chests, but a 20th century specimen chest-onchest made of oak with wooden drawer knobs having carefully-faceted front surfaces. Very much designed in the manner of
Gimson or one of the Arts and CraftsCotswold school of the first quarter of the 20th century. 1900-1925

CHESTS OF DRAWERS - 1860-1930
The period 1860-1930 is not particularly associated with beautiful chests of drawers in the traditional antique collector’s view. Wooden knobs and nasty turned feet are what spring immediately to mind. Unlike the 18th century, where the chest played a decorative role, the chest of drawers was relegated to the bedroom in the 19th century and replaced by display cabinets and other pieces in the more public rooms. Thus the pieces tend to be commodious and very functional, with some design aberrations as a gesture to current taste, but not very lovely.
At the end of the century, back went the chest to 18th century styling in addition to current forms. It was perhaps the Arts and Crafts Movement who reclaimed the chest of drawers as a more interesting piece and,
subsequently, the Cotswold designers  Gimson, the Barnsleys and Gordon Russell  produced pieces in solid native woods that were based on traditional forms but clean in line and of pleasing appearance. The trade
always produced pine and deal chests in quantity and the chest also appeared, of course, in Jacobethan, burr walnut bedappled and plain forms.
A mahogany chest of drawers with twist-turned columns down the sides and a heavy, serpentine-moulded top drawer. The mahogany veneers used are of high quality, with well-matched figure repeated from drawer to drawer, but the overall effect is heavy. It is a type popular from the 1840s onwards, although by 1880 it must have been out of fashion. 1840-1870
Another chest in mahogany of sub-classical design of a type originating in the 1840s and based on French classical types. Well made, with well matched veneers but nowadays considered ponderous. 1840-1860
A mahogany chest with three deep drawers at the top. Sometimes the middle deep top drawer is fitted as a secretaire, which adds to value. The quality of veneers is good but the effect is ponderous, particularly
the bottom apron which appears to have a drawer in it. These chests, like the previous two, were built usually of deal, with mahogany veneer, for cheapness and many now suffer from missing pieces of veneer due to wear. It is not difficult to repair small missing pieces but the effect before repair tends to put purchasers off. 1850-1870
Another ponderous chest, but this time bow-fronted. Not really of the correct proportions for modification to an ‘18th century’ bow front on splayed feet by a `converter’, so has to be sold more or less for what
it is. 1850-1880
Possibly the epitome of the good quality Victorian mahogany chest of drawers  tall, bow fronted, with splendid use of `feather’ mahogany veneers. Capacious, well-built and with drawers fitted to run
smoothly. The wooden knobs have been turned with some decorative ridging which refines the bluntness of the ordinary bulbous knob. The bun-shaped and tapered turned feet are also typical. The gradation of the
drawer depths is also well handled on this example. Altogether a very professional piece of furniture but, unlike 18th century chests, not very suitable for rooms other than the bedroom and therefore restricted in price accordingly. 1850-1870
Back to the 18th century  a mahogany bow-fronted chest on splay feet in the ‘Hepplewhite’ style but with original wooden knobs, whereas Hepplewhite would have had pressed brass plates and handles.
Made in quite large quantities and now often `converted’ to an 18th century piece by modification back to brass handles. If a bit tall for 18th century proportion, then it might be further modified by having a drawer
removed and the carcase re-jigged. 1880-1900
A chest made by Shoolbred & Co. in emulation of a French Empire style, with a marble top. It is made in solid mahogany with mahogany veneered drawer fronts and solid mahogany mouldings, so must have been expensive. Now considered somewhat dark and sombre, so not particularly valued.
A ‘Chippendale’ mahogany serpentine fronted chest of drawers, with a brushing slide and canted corners with blind fretted decoration, on bracket feet. A good reproduction of a mid-18th century chest.
A mahogany serpentine- fronted chest on chest incorporating two short drawers, six long drawers and a brushing slide. The canted corners are embellished with blind fretwork of Chippendale pattern and the
top moulding is dentilled. Although the quality of workmanship appears to be good, the proportion is too cramped for 18th century work. Doubtless a useful piece for the smaller rooms of the early 20th century.
1910-1930
A typical Edwardian chest of drawers, with solid plinth base. Available at the time in either ’satin walnut’  which is a kind of solid yellow-brown wood, imported from America  or oak. It has pressed bronze
handles and plates. The incised horizontal moulding machined across the drawer fronts and down the sides is a feature of the period. 1900-1910
An Edwardian mahogany chest of drawers, on a solid plinth base, with satinwood crossbanding and oval pressed brass handles to give a ‘Sheraton’ look.
Another typical Edwardian form of chest, known at the time as a ‘Scotch’ chest. The drawer edges are bevelled or fielded. The arrangement of the top drawers, with one deep central unit and pairs of small
drawers flanking it, dates back to press chests of the 18th century. Available in walnut or mahogany. 1900-1910
A cupboard chest of drawers favoured by Percy Wells for use in the bedroom, where the fall-front cupboard, intended for hats, had ‘met with cordial approval’. Presumably this was intended for ladies, since the vision of lustful 1920s male cottage visitors, dashing into the bedroom with their hats still on, having missed the hall stand or rack recommended by Wells (elsewhere) in their ardour on the way, and stuffing the offending garment into the top of the cupboard chest (before or afterwards) ‘with cordial approval’ is even more than D.H. Lawrence might conceive. Actually Wells also recommended similar cupboard chests, with added boot and book shelves below and above respectively, for the living room. There is a hint that the fall front chest might replace the bureau, using the flap for writing purposes. c.1920
An oak chest of drawers of slightly progressive design with ‘oxidised’ metal handles. A reduction by a commercial manufacturer of ‘art nouveau’ styling to a simpler form Plain Furniture is on the way. 1900-1910
Three waxed oak chests by Maurice Adams, showing reliance on late 17th and early 18th century designs. A turned-leg stretchered variety for the raised first example, called a ‘Cromwell’ design by the maker; bracket feet and bun feet for the more conventional types.
Three mahogany reproduction style chests from Maurice Adams. The feet are a semi-cabriole splayed variety in deference to prevailing I good’ taste, i.e. for quasi-Queen Anne. c.1925
Chest of drawers in oak with walnut handles by Gordon Russell. Wardrobe and mirror to match. Note the inlaid ebony-andbox chequer lines beloved of the movement, particularly the Cotswold Crafties. Simple and
functional: the wooden handles are a particular trademark of Russell’s. c.1930

CHESTS OF DRAWERS (BUREAUX) AND DRESSING CHESTS (DRESSERS)
About 1890-1940
Nine-drawer oak chest designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, about 1902.
In modern American usage, a bureau is a chest of drawers; in Britain it is a slope-front desk. In the USA, a dresser is a dressing-table or dressing-chest with a mirror; in the UK it is a kitchen cupboard or country-made sideboard, usually with shelves above.
From their positions of honour in the living. room, where they were repositories of heirlooms and dowries, epitomized by the ‘bottom drawer’ in which the bride-to-be tucked away her trousseau, chests of drawers were relegated to the bedroom, eventually to become ’storage units’, oak dressing bureau by Buckley, 1890-1910: The chest of drawers survived as an independent piece of furniture, often bow-fronted with pilasters and turned feet, but was also adapted to form part of a bedroom suite as a drawing-chest (dresser) with mirror attached.
1910-25: The need to economize on living space made the bulky chest of drawers a prime candidate for rationalization.
1925-40: The Art Moderne style did little in its defence beyond lavishing expensive veneers on it. Under reformist influence, it became at first purely functional but still autonomous, until absorbed into a storage system of shelving, hanging and drawer space composed of units, either built-in or flexible, often put together by early DIY enthusiasts.
For them, a New York cabinet-maker wrote a book called How to Make Your Own Bedroom Furniture. In the first six months, it sold I I copies. The publishers changed the title to How to Do It in the Bedroom, and  dressing chest with asymmetrical Mirror came a best-seller. DIY was not really a 20thC invention. From the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, much was made by unskilled homemakers, and in the late 19thC, amateur woodwork became a cult that accounts for many otherwise inexplicable departures from the norm.
1890-1910: Mahogany, walnut, oak, used in the solid or as veneers on pine base. Drawers often lined with cedar.
1910-40: Oak, ash, walnut, mahogany, satin birch, Canary whitewood, used in the solid for drawer-fronts. Veneered plywood on softwood frames for carcases.
Custom-built pieces hand-made, mass-produced merchandise heavily reliant on machines. Some DIY artefacts remarkable for methods previously unknown and never- repeated, e.g. a highboy converted from an upright piano, the drawers assembled with screwed-on angle irons.
1890-1925: Carving, by hand or machine; mass-produced marquetry motifs, many in pseudo-Federal style, available by the dozen for insertion at furniture factory.
1925-40: Little decoration other than on reproductions and pastiches of ‘Jacobean’ (vaguely 17thC) chests of drawers with geometric mouldings and split banister turnings on drawer-fronts.
Traditional types stained dark and French polished; dressing-chests fitted with mirrors in matching frames.
Handles: Turned wood, ornate metal simulating brass or bronze.
Art Moderne types veneered in exotic woods or, if solid, limed or painted and cleaned off, leaving pigment in grain. Dressing-chest fitted with frameless, bevelled mirrors, sometimes of eccentric shape.
Handles: Wooden bars, oxidized or chromium-plated metal grips.
Late-19thC mahogany chests of drawers with cedar drawer-linings a good buy for those who like their rich, heavy look. Good examples of Art Moderne highly priced, poor ones not worth having.
Many a late-19thC chest of drawers with bow front, heavy pilasters, turned feet and wooden knobs has been made into a Federal type by removing the pilasters, reducing the width, replacing the turned feet with brackets and the wooden knobs with reproduction brass handles.

CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS. HIGHBOYS
About 1790-1890
Right, Federal mahogany and birch-veneered bow-front chest of drawers, about 1810-1820.
Neo-classical principles dominate for 50 years, to be followed by eclecticism for the next 50; all the while, ethnic minorities preserve their heritage and religious communities reject worldly extravagance.
Federal, 1790-1810: Published designs of Hepplewhite and Sheraton favour chests of drawers with bow or serpentine fronts, commodes of half-round shape. Noted makers; McIntire, Seymour, both of Boston.
Revivals, 1840-90: Louis XV/XVI commodes copies. Massive, mass-produced chests of drawers, commodious but inelegant. Noted makers: Meeks, New York.
Shaker, best period 1790-1840: Chests of drawers with flush fronts, flush or panelled ends, turned or slightly tapered feet, wooden knobs (brass handles rejected as vain and sinful); blanket chests, box type, sometimes with one or two drawers below, were commoner in northern than in western communities. Tall, slim, six-drawer chests made by Massachusetts communities.
Above, Federal inlaid maple bow-front chest of drawers, about 1790-1815.
Empire, 1810-40: Flat fronts flanked by columns or pilasters. Top drawer often projects slightly. Many simplified country versions. Noted makers: Belter, Lannuier, both of New York.
Above, Shaker cherrywood sewing chest, about 1820-1830.
Gothic, 1790-1860: French Provincial commodes made in Quebec recall Louis XV styles but are in solid wood, as distinct from veneered New York reproductions.
Above, painted pine dower chest, Pennsylvania, 1794.
Through tenon Construction with the end exposed.
Californian chests of drawers show strong Spanish influence in use of through-tenons for joining rails to stiles. Pennsylvania German chests with painted decoration and inscriptions often bear late-18th and early-19thC dates.
Sophisticated types: Mahogany, rosewood, maple, satinwood.
Country types: Oak, pine, poplar, walnut, butternut.
Sophisticated types: Very fine cabinetmaking in Federal and early Empire periods, giving way to machine work in mid-19thC. (For methods of shaping bow and serpentine drawer-fronts, see TABLES AND SIDEBOARDS, 1790-1840, p. 323).
Country types: Traditional joinery, varying from one area to another, e.g. through-tenons, California (see STYLE AND APPEARANCE above).
Sophisticated types: Carving confined to details, leaving main surfaces free for veneering, marquetry, painting.
Country types: Mostly plain but some ethnic communities painted flowers, birds, in bright colours.
Sophisticated types: French polished. Country types: Oiled and waxed, varnished or painted.
Fine Federal highboys and chests of drawers so obviously valuable, they can hardly help commanding big prices. Simple late-Empire pieces much more reasonable. Good Shaker and country types very collectable; their unpretentiousness makes a boot sale bargain possible but improbable.
Late-19thC Shaker decoration above traditionally plain chest.
After 1840, Shaker design gradually succumbed to the hunger for excessive decoration, and by 1890 some pieces were sporting fretwork galleries and fussy turnings; a late piece could thus be rejected as too
decorative to be genuine. Conversely, plain pieces have recently been reproduced, so beware the Shaker faker.

CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS. HIGHBOYS AND LOWBOYS.
About 1700-1790
A Queen Anne walnut lowboy, about 1750-1760.
As the 18thC begins, the joiner’s lidded chest and the panelled chest of drawers continue to be made, but mainly in country districts; in the larger towns their place is taken by cabinet-makers’ pieces with flush surfaces.
William and Mary, 1690-1725: Chests of drawers on turned feet, lowboys with cyma scrolled kneeholes and turned legs, highboys that are essentially chests of drawers on stands resembling lowboys. Half-round
mouldings on edges of frames.
Queen Anne, 1725-60: Similar to William and Mary but with bracket feet on chests, cabriole legs on lowboys and highboys. The Mahogany block-front chest of drawers, Boston, finest highboys have bonnet tops. No
half-round mouldings on frames.
Chippendale, 1760-90: Despite the name attached to this period, neither the block and shell fronts of the Newport, Rhode Island, chest of drawers, nor the curvaceous kettle base type in which Boston specialized, owes very much to Chippendale’s designs. English highboys and lowboys were usually less elaborate and seldom  if ever  made to match, as they frequently were in America, where versions of the chest-on-chest (double chest of drawers) were also more complex than their English counterparts.
William and Mary, Queen Anne: Walnut or curly maple veneers on foundation of pine; solid walnut cabriole legs; oak, pine, poplar and cedar used for drawer-linings.
Chippendale: Mahogany, maple used in the solid and in veneers, walnut and cherry in the solid. Secondary woods as above.
Ends of carcases not panelled but built up with boards glued edge to edge (’rub’ joint), or made from a single wide board of solid mahogany or pine. Back panelled or boarded. Drawers with fine dovetail joints; no
grooves at sides  they run on strips of wood glued to bottoms. Great variety in drawer arrangements of lowboys, the number varying from one to seven.
Construction of flush-ended chest end: boards glued together for width, then dovetailed.
William and Mary: Chests of drawers plain; legs of lowboys and highboys are turned to trumpet and cup shapes, and united by flat, curving stretchers.
Queen Anne: Chests of drawers plain; highboys and lowboys have cabriole legs carved with shells on knees, Dutch (pad) or Spanish (paintbrush) feet; highboys are surmounted by scrolled pediments (bonnet tops).
Chippendale: Rococo carving, especially in kneeholes of Philadelphia lowboys and highboys, influenced by Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers’ Director, first published in 1754 in London, where cabriole legs and claw-and-ball feet were already out of fashion while continuing to be popular in America until about 1780.
William and Mary, Queen Anne: Veneers of walnut, curly maple. Japanning in gilt on black ground in imitation of oriental lacquer.
Chippendale: Mahogany sometimes used as veneer especially on shaped drawer-fronts, e.g. kettle base chests of drawers. Brass handles and keyhole escutcheons.
Highboys command high prices, those with bonnet tops and carved detail highest of all. Lowboys vary according to quality and condition, but are usually expensive. Large, plain chests of drawers are much cheaper than small, decorative examples.
Brass keyhole escutcheon plate, early-18thC.
A Chippendale-style mahogany dressing-table, Philadelphia. about 1779.
VENEER
Many plain, solid chests of drawers have been promoted to a higher price bracket by veneering them. The thickness of the veneer can be seen by examining the back edge of the top. In the 18thC veneers were saw-cut and much thicker than the modern knife-cut, paper-thin kind; but do not jump to conclusions either way. Even in the 18thC, the veneer was often not more than V16inches/1.5 mm thick before sanding down, and many pieces have been drastically cleaned off in the name of refurbishment, leaving them suspiciously thin. A thick veneer is not in itself a guarantee of authenticity. It may have been cannibalized  stripped from an old piece of little value  or it may be relatively new; saw-cut veneers are still available. Nevertheless, taken with other evidence, the relative thickness of veneers can be a useful guide.
This type of chest of drawers often veneered later in walnut or maple to increase the value.

AMERICAN CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS
About 1600-1700
The box-like chest, serving as a crate or travelling trunk, is one of the few pieces of furniture brought with them by the Pilgrim Fathers. By 1660, panelled chests were being made with drawers below the box; their number increased until they occupied the whole space, and the top was no longer hinged. The chest became the chest of drawers.
Chests and chests of drawers of 17thC type continued to be made in country districts well into the 18thC as indicated by the overlapping dates of this section and the next.
Before 1675, angular forms decorated in Anglo-Dutch Renaissance and baroque styles. New England types with regional differences then appear (see DECORATION below). Known makers include: W. Searle and T. Dennis of Ipswich, J. Allis and S. Belding of Hadley and Hatfield, Massachusetts; P. Blin of Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Oak, tulipwood; wide pine boards for lids of chests, linings of chests of drawers.
Boarded (or plank)chest: Simple type, the boards nailed to edges of ends.
Panelled chest: Panels bevelled at edges and inserted into rebates (rabbets, rabbits) in frame joined by mortise-and-tenon joints
Above, boarded construction, splits in wood.
secured with pegs. Lid not panelled  solid board(s) moulded on edge.
Panelled chest of drawers: Ends as for chests, above. Top fixed with nails, pegs or blocks glued inside. Back boarded or panelled.
Drawers assembled with nails and/or crude dovetails, grooves cut in sides to run on runners nailed to frame.
Drawer with grooves for side runners.
Chests, before 1675: Flat carving of foliage. Regional differences then develop.
After 1675, Hadley, Massachusetts: Flat carving of tulips, palm leaves, covering whole of front  frame as well as panels.
Hartford    County, Connecticut: Carved sunflowers and applied split turnings.
Chests of drawers, from 1675: Essex County, Massachusetts: Drawer-fronts moulded on edges and divided into small areas by split turnings, also applied to stiles (see SEATS 1690 to 1725, p. 294).
A painted and ebonised and pine chest about 1675-1710.
Handles: Iron, or wood painted black. Wood handles turned or shaped to an oval and set at an angle (’turtle-back’).
Painting and staining in black, red and blue with local or imported pigments used at first mainly to decorate carving but, in some districts, replacing it by 1700. Split turnings painted black to imitate ebony.
American chests and chests of drawers pre-1740 are rare and expensive, but some have made a trip to the UK and got lost. A 17thC English oak chest was seldom carved all over its front like the Hadley type; neither did it have a pine top. Such features might be treated by English buyers as evidence of later carving and a replaced top. They might be right, but you could get lucky.
Below panelled construction: panel moues freely ill rebate.

FRENCH AND ITALIAN CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1600-1675
Italian Renaissance cassone.
Lidded chests continued to be the main storage pieces until about 1650. From then on, they were largely replaced with armoires (see CUPBOARDS, p. 210) and chests of drawers, but in many rural areas the lidded chest survived as a traditional type. By about 1620 baroque (see GUIDE TO PERIODS AND STYLES, P. 192) had begun to replace Renaissance in Italy as the dominating style for much furniture, and soon travelled north. Many Italian cassoni are of the sarcophagus type (see CHESTS 1450-1600, opposite) with curved carcases that suited the baroque style of decoration, but 17thC chests of drawers were angular.
17thC carved Italian cassone.
Usually, a timber near to hand (see CHESTS before 1450, opposite) as the principal wood and sometimes throughout (e.g. oak in the Netherlands), sometimes with a secondary one (e.g. chestnut in France) for drawer-linings (sides, back and bottom). Iron.
Chests (wood): Framed, housed or built up. Germany made an iron type now popularly known as ‘armada’, with a large escutcheon around a false keyhole, the true one being concealed at the centre of the lid, under which a steel mechanism operates as many as 12 spring-loaded bolts.
Above, early-17thC German steel ‘Armada” chest, locking at 14 points.
Chests of drawers: Panelled ends joined by mortise-and-tenon joints to horizontal rails between the drawers at the front, panelled or boarded back. Drawers usually full width, but often moulded to appear narrower. In the Netherlands, lower ones often enclosed by doors. Drawers made with lap joints or, at best, two or three coarse dovetails.
Drawer-sides grooved to slide on side runners fitted inside ends. Feet are either continuations of stiles (corner posts) or separately turned on the lathe to ball or bun shapes, and dowelled into the base.
Drawer moulded to reduce width.
EUROPEAN DECORATION
Chests: Early-17thC Italian cassoni often have one large front panel with figures, scrolls or coats-of-arms carved in bold relief. In Denmark, chests of boarded construction were carved with love tokens (e.g. twin hearts) or with repeat patterns simulating the strapping on German iron chests (see the information on CONSTRUCTION above).
Chests of drawers: In Italy, drawer-fronts were sometimes decorated with certosina –inlay into the solid with small pieces of bone to form geometric patterns. In the Netherlands, floral patterns were inlaid with bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl. In most regions, mouldings were applied to drawer-fronts in geometric patterns – an Islamic style that spread from Moorish Spain. Patterns may be different on each drawer-front. Some mouldings and small areas veneered in ebony, imported from the East Indies; thus, the
ability to veneer led to the French calling cabinetmakers ebenistes, to distinguish them from the menuisiers (joiners) who worked with solid wood.
Handles: Turned wood, iron rings or brass drops. Italian wood knobs sometimes carved with heads of humans or animals.
handles: below right, wooden knob, turned and hatched; below left iron ring.
If grain was meant to be seen, varnish made of resin dissolved in linseed or poppy oil was used until about 1660, when lac in spirits of wine became popular. Country-made pieces oiled and polished with beeswax dissolved in turpentine. In Spain, Italy, the Alpine countries and Scandinavia, pine was painted in colours, with scrolls, foliage, flowers or figures, or left in natural state and scrubbed.
Best buy for those with space to fill: large Dutch chests of drawers, partly enclosed by doors; high quality, oak throughout. There are 19thC copies around, but the quality is often even better than the 17thC originals.
Dutch chest of drawers, mid-17thC.
Small Italian and Spanish chests of drawers in painted pine are often crudely constructed and later in date than they appear – sometimes so much later that they are best avoided unless backed by a worthwhile guarantee.

FRENCH CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1675-1760
Polychrome bootie commode, about 1700.
Lidded chests continue to be made, but mainly in rural areas; regional variations become firmly established.
Chests of drawers in mid-17thC styles also made in provinces until well after 1700, but in major centres, panelled ends give way to flush surfaces, applied mouldings disappear from drawer-fronts, veneering, parquetry and marquetry are widely practised. Chests on stands with turned legs in the Netherlands. Rectilinear carcases until after 1700.
France is leader of fashion under Louis XIV, for whom a pair of curved chests of drawers – commodes en tombeau– were made by Boulle in 1708-9, derived from Roman sarcophagus shape already re-created for Italian Renaissance cassoni. During the transitional baroque/rococo period (Regence, 1715-30, covering childhood of Louis XV), serpentine-fronted and bombe (blown up) three-drawer commodes are made, until the Louis XV rococo form, with only two drawers, raised on cabriole legs, is created by Cressent. In the 1730s the full bombe shape, with gently undulating curves from top to bottom and side to side, has become popular throughout most of Europe, but provincial types often have curve on one plane only. In some centres, curves are exaggerated, e.g. ‘high-bosomed’ in Venice, ‘low-bellied’ in Holland.
Local timbers for country types, exotic woods for veneers, e.g. varieties of Dalbergia – rosewood, kingwood (’prince wood’), palisander (purpleheart). Pine or oak as foundation for veneering and with chestnut and poplar, as drawer-linings. Marble in various colours was used for tops of commodes, ormolu for handles and mounts.
1675-1720: Flush ends made with rub joints (glueing boards edge to edge, rubbing them together until surplus glue is expunged, clamping until set). Rails between drawers tenoned into ends. Drawers dovetailed, not always very finely; fronts extended to overlap rails; side-runners abandoned in favour of runners on bottoms of drawers.
Cross-section of drawer-fronts of bombe commode, extended to Conceal rail.
1720-1760: Serpentine and bombe shapes built up (see NEW WORLD, TABLES 1790-1840, p. 323). By about 1750, drawer-fronts in fine examples overlap rails sufficiently to conceal them and present a virtually uninterrupted surface for decoration.
Marquetry: Inlaying veneered surface with a figurative design composed of other veneers. The usual material was wood, sometimes tinted with coloured stains; but other materials were used, e.g. ivory, while Boulle per-Ormolu: Cast bronze, chiselled, gilded and burnished, used for handles and mounts. Commodes made by the Spindlers for Frederick the Great were loaded with ormolu mounts made by the Swiss-born Kambli.
Carving: In some areas, e.g. Scandinavia, carved and gilt mounts substituted for ormolu. Carved scrolls, flowers, foliage decorate fine French provincial commodes.
Marquetry was brought to a brilliant colourful finish by sanding down and coating with varnish before waxing. Coloured varnishes patented by the brothers Martin (vernis Martin) were used for special effects on fronts and ends of commodes, e.g. imitating oriental lacquer (see also EUROPEAN CUPBOARDS AND CABINETS, p. 213). Venetians used their own varnish – lacca– to paint vivid flowers on coloured grounds. A cheaper- version, lacca povera, was executed by glueing prints to surfaces before colouring and varnishing. The interiors of Venetian commodes – even the best – are often very poorly finished.
A first-class signed French commode is a millionaire’s status symbol, but many lesser items made in the provinces or in other parts of Europe sell at much more modest prices and can be every bit as agreeable.
MAKERS’ STAMPS
From 1743 every piece made in Paris was supposed to be stamped with the maker’s name and, after vetting by a member of the guild’s jury, with their stamp – J.M.E.’ Uure des Menuisiers et Ebnistes). If the marble top is lifted off, these marks are frequently found stamped in the woodwork of a commode made between 1743 and 1791, but their absence is not necessarily damning (see GUIDE TO PERIODS AND STYLES, ROCOCO, P. 193) the technique of inlaying arabesques of engraved metal (brass, pewter) into a turtleshell veneer backed with coloured mica.
The pieces of shell were fitted into the spaces left after cutting out the brass, and vice versa, to produce pairs of commodes with the decoration of one the reverse of that of the other. The Spindler family and Muller of Bayreuth were among the many German craftsmen who made bombe commodes with fine marquetry.
Parquetry: Small diamond-shaped pieces of contrasting veneer laid in juxtaposition to create intriguing illusions of three-dimensional perspectives.
CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1760-1800
First stage of neo-classicism brings discipline to design of sophisticated commodes. Bombe shape unfashionable in Paris during reign of Louis XVI but survives in Germany and Holland, often in modified form (with curve from top to bottom only) into 1770s. Full bombe shape is continued in Sweden with gilt channels in rails between drawers.
Many country-made lidded chests and provincial chests of drawers – especially in Denmark – interpret new style in naive ways, sometimes showing English influence in crisp, economical shapes.
Mainly as in previous period: mahogany added to French repertoire in 1780s.
Full bombe shape (curved on two planes) difficult for all but best craftsmen to manage – only a few made drawer-sides with curves following line of ends – so its abandonment in favour of rectilinear shapes, or of bowed or serpentine fronts (curved on one plane only, from side to side) results in more attention to sound construction. Even basic features, e.g. dovetailed joint, show improvement. The cabriole leg is retained during the transitional Louis XV/XVI period but is eventually discarded and a variety of straight, tapered legs, square or turned, is adopted. Some commodes more like cabinets, with doors concealing drawers.
Marquetry: From about 1760 to 1780, still lavish but with growing tendency to restriction within defined areas, e.g. an oval or octagon at centre of commode front by Maggiolini of Milan inlaid with figures from classical mythology. David Roentgen of Neuwied, supplier to French and Russian royal families and supreme practitioner of marquetry, is quick to jettison it when plain mahogany becomes fashionable in 1780s, shortly before French Revolution.
Carving: Delicately carved commodes on slim legs produced in Rhineland, richly carved flowers on angles of serpentine-fronted commodes in Portugal.
Ormolu: Handles and mounts first features to exchange asymmetrical rococo squirts for neatly balanced, neo-classical masks, acanthus leaves and wreaths, but high quality maintained.
Bronze workers had own guilds guarding demarcation lines until disbandment of all guilds in 1791.
Below poicelainplaqu.
Painting: Delicate trellis patterns painted with coloured varnishes in France, panels painted with Pompeiian figures in Spain.
Pietre dure: Florentine mosaic panels in coloured hardstones — often cannibalized from earlier cabinets — used to decorate Louis XVI commodes (see CUPBOARDS AND CABINETS, p. 211).
Folk art: Country-made chests of drawers in many areas (e.g. Switzerland, the Tyrol, Denmark) painted in bright colours with flowers, landscapes, formally arranged, in keeping with the neo-classical style.
Highly-decorated Louis XVI commodes almost as expensive as Louis XV types; plainer ones much less so and easier to live with, whether French or of another nationality in the French-dominated style.
Above, a plain mahogany commode With ormolu mounts and secielaire drainer, about 1790-1800,
FRENCH COMMODES
In French commodes of the Louis XV/XVI periods, it is usual, though not essential, for the top edges of drawer-sides to be slightly rounded. This is not a guarantee of authenticity, nor is it conclusive evidence of French nationality (the same feature is found on many of the best 18thC English chests of drawers), but it is a favourable sign when present in French commodes, as it is not usually evident on 19thC copies.
North Italian marquetry commode, 1790-1800.

FRENCH CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1800-1850
German commode in French Empire style, about 1810.
The lidded chest continues to be made as a purely utilitarian article – e.g. blanket chest, tool chest; and as a decorative one also in some areas – Scandinavia, Russia, Poland and the Baltic countries. Chests made by peasant communities in Catalonia in the mid-19thC can easily be mistaken for 17thC examples.
French mahogany commode, the drawers flanked by monopodia, about 1820.
The grand, commode-type chest of drawers survives as a salon piece in French Empire style, current throughout most of Europe, 1800-15; but from then until about 1850 (excepting revivals of Louis XV) is made in plainer, more functional fashion and banished to the bourgeois bedroom, where it is seen at its best in the Biedermeier style, originating in Austria about 1815, spreading to Germany, Scandinavia and Russia, so carrying on a sober version of Empire neo-classicism until
about 1830, after which historic revivals (Gothic, rococo, Renaissance, baroque) begin to intrude.
Mahogany popular at first but British blockade of Napoleonic Europe creates scarcity, thus stimulating use of native timbers – cherry, birch, pine, walnut, fruitwoods, poplar, ash (but not oak) – with growing preference for pale woods.
Empire-Biedermeier: Usually rectilinear, but semi-bombe shape used by Danhauser, Vienna, about 1815. In popular type, top drawer projects as if resting on a pair of cylindrical columns. A tall, slim type (called semainier in France) has seven drawers – one for each day of the week. Although guilds had been disbanded in France, Germany and Aus-Column capped by decorative metal ringmouldings.
trig, the strict training of apprentices continued as before, resulting in a high degree of craftsmanship, aided from the 1820s by English inventions, e.g. glass paper, improved saws and planes. New machines for planing, drilling, cutting mortises and producing veneers in large sheets were introduced during the Biedermeier period, and large factories set up (notably Danhauser’s, Vienna); but methods of assembly with traditional mortise-and-tenon and dovetail joints remained much the same as before. They are always concealed, the Biedermeier ideal being a flush surface, sometimes broken by a recessed arch set at the centre of the drawers, the rails also sometimes hidden by overlapping drawer-fronts.
Recessed arch, sometimes found on Biedermeier furniture.
Empire: Imperial symbols as gilt bronze mounts, imitated in brass for cheaper products. Marquetry in dark woods on light ground revived after restoration of French monarchy in 1815.
Biedermier chest of drawers, about 1825.
Biedermeier: Marquetry and mounts similar to Empire; ivory or bone escutcheon plates around keyhole — perhaps as an aid to finding key; it is often the only thing to grip, handles being sacrificed to Biedermeier passion for flatness.
French polishing introduced in France during Empire period. Austria and Germany used stains for first time during Biedermeier period, especially to simulate ebony (for bandings) and mahogany. Even then, walnut never stained. Grain of veneer on drawer-fronts runs vertically. Top edges of drawers masked with thick veneer except in Sweden, where pine foundation is usually visible; this also applies to many 18thC Swedish bureaux.
Chests of drawers of this period in pale woods not very fashionable but still not over-expensive. Darker woods, especially mahogany (the most expensive when new), now wanted rather less — excellent value.
MOCK-BIEDERMEIER
Much pretentious, poorly made, post-1850 Germanic furniture is now sold under the fashionable Biedermeier label. The best was made before 1830, is of high quality and severe-looking. Anything made after the 1840 revolution is unlikely to be true to the Biedermeier ideal of beauty — best expressed, someone once said, in the music of Schubert.
Continous vertical grain of veneer.
About 1850-1890
19thC Swiss traditional dough trough.
Contemporary chests of drawers commodious but not very elegant. Commodes in 18thC rococo style, but with original touches, produced by Leistler of Vienna, Linke and Zwiener of Paris, followed by revival of Louis XVI style. Copies of originals by Carlin (18thC ebeniste) incorporating oriental lacquer panels, made by H. Dasson but signed with own name.
In Holland, bombe commodes reproduced and marquetry flowers and birds added to plain old ones.
Lidded chests: French Provincial or Swiss dough trough (male or petrin) – a tapered chest resting on a stand, with Louis XIII-type turned legs and, very often, with Louis XV-type cabriole feet.
Swiss mahogany chest of drawers, about 1865.
Contemporary type: Mahogany, oak, walnut veneer.
Reproductions: Wide variety of exotic woods.
Rural types: Local timbers.
Traditional methods employed with great attention to detail on fine quality reproductions. Some contemporary types hand-made, many machine-assisted.
Veneered types: Marquetry, ormolu mounts (often poor).
Rural types (solid): Carving.
Veneered types: French polished.
Rural types: oiled and waxed or left in natural state. Painting of figures and flowers in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Good quality 19thC copies of Louis XV and Louis XVI commodes now sell at fairly high prices, especially if signed by well-known maker, e.g. Linke or Dasson. Bulky, contemporary types often well-made, inexpensive but not easy to re-sell when they have outlived their usefulness.
19thC COPIES
The interiors of 19thC copies are generally better finished than those of the originals. Signatures, when present, are more conspicuous, and some (Linke’s especially) have been forged in recent years.

French CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1890 to 1940
Macassar ebony chest of drawers, 1930s.
1890-1920: Sinuous art nouveau line lends itself to leggy items – tables, chairs – more readily than to carcase pieces. Leading practitioners (Majorelle, Galle) adapt bow-fronted types by framing within stem-like mouldings, placing them on swept plinths and decorating with stylized plant forms, carved or inlaid – reminders that original chests were hollowed-out trees.
1910-40, Industrial Design: Theories of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, combined with practicalities of mechanized production, reduce chest to angular carcase.
1920-40, Art Deco: In reaction against industrial design, commode is treated by designers (Ruhlmann, Dunand, Follot) as item fit for drawing-room of a princess rather than cubicle of an institution. About 1930, price of one by Ruhlmann, Paris, higher than an important 18thC example – often source of inspiration exploited in novel ways. Style soon becomes debased, with flashy ornament added to angular or boldly curved shapes; but between extremes of machined austerity and Art Deco kitsch, are many hand-made, simply designed and discreetly decorated chests of drawers.
Except for birch plywood and Scandinavian pine used as secondary woods, most of the main timber for furniture of all types is imported into Europe from the tropics. Art Deco designers also use ivory, semi-precious stones and silver for inlay.
Although much woodworking machinery now in use, old techniques survive, hand-skills being essential for fine Art Deco commodes; but by 1930s, most dovetail joints and mortises cut by machines.
Rear view of handmade drawer with lipped front.
Art nouveau and Art Deco: Marquetry, carving.
Industrial design: Almost none.
Mainly French polishing. Some Art Deco commodes lacquered. Industrial design favoured natural finish paint, cellulose.
Art nouveau and Art Deco commodes, expensive when new, now command very high prices. Best buy: medium range 1930s chests of drawers in natural wood, hand-dovetailed.
Before paying a high price for an Art Deco commode, check that any veneers are in reasonably good condition. They were usually knife-cut very thin and prone to cracking and peeling.