Antique Chest Of Drawers

TALLBOYS OR CHESTS ON CHESTS
About 1710-1820
Chippendale-style mahogany tallboy, about 1765-1780.
Adevelopment of the chest on stand, used in bedrooms to store clothing. Especially popular during the second half of the 18thC - from when most date - despite being too high to use fully without standing on a chair.
Formed as two chests of drawers, the upper one slightly narrower than the lower. Nearly all straight-fronted, with bracket (often ogee) feet, though some around 1760 are serpentine, and later, from about 1780,
bow-fronted, with splayed ’swept’ feet.
Upper part has two or three short drawers above three feet long. A projecting moulded cornice is common; occasionally a broken pediment. Some have a frieze too; on early examples, occasionally, a cushion frieze
conceals a drawer.
Fashionably, corners canted; carved as columns or pilasters, in the mid-century, shallow Gothic or Chinese fret, or simple reeding or fluting.
Lower chest has three long drawers; mouldings around base and top into which upper chest slots. Occasionally a cavetto moulding (semi-circular concave niche) decorated with marquetry sunburst pattern, on bottom drawer of walnut examples. Occasionally a brushing slide at top; sometimes a secretaire drawer (see DESKS, P. 111).
Drawers usually - not always - of diminishing depth within each chest. Handles sometimes aligned.
Left, Sheraton mahogany tallboy, about 1800; right, late-18thC mahogany secretaire tallboy.
Walnut veneer; mahogany (solid or veneer). Occasionally rosewood, amboyna and other highly figured woods during Regency. Sometimes country versions in oak. Oak and pine for carcases.
As for CHESTS OF DRAWERS (see p. 87). The separate projecting cornice slots over blocks glued at corners of top. Occasionally low relief carving on frieze.
Polish; (rarely) japanning.
VALUES
Even the plainest tallboy will now fetch a four-figure sum and the best quality easily five. An early date, a cavetto moulding, a secretaire drawer, and, to a lesser extent, a brushing slide, and well figured and coloured veneers, will push the price up.
MARRIAGES
In the past tallboys were less fashionable than today and many were split up and sold as two separate chests of drawers. The reverse process is now common, so watch for marriages. Look for: correct conformation of
drawers; matching timber on all sides, including backboards; identical construction of all drawers; rough, unfinished surface on tops of both parts (neither would have been visible); canted corners on top and bottom, or top only.

Antique English Chests on Chest and Tallboys

Walnut chest on chest, of first quarter of 18th century with half herring bone cross banding on drawers. Bottomdrawe has curved centre panel inlaid with ’sunburst’ and waved apron. Top and bottom halves with chamfered and fluted corners. Bracket Feet. Veneer fairly straight in figure and grain; carcase  fronts veneered and drawers lip-moulded on edges.
Price Range: $160-$300
Value points: Size 6′6″ high or under
Sunburst in bottom drawer
Chamfered and fluted corners

A Queen Anne period or possibly George I chest on chest or ‘tallboy’ in walnut veneer. In this example there is an ovolo ‘lip’ moulding around the drawer edges to lap over the flat veneered carcase front edges when closed. The drawers are not actually cross banded; an inlaid stringing line around the drawers, suitably inset from the edges, gives this effect. Note that the bracket feet are also veneered in the same vertical figure arrangement as the front of the piece - restorers sometimes forget to do this when replacing feet.
The sides are veneered, with a cross banding down the vertical edges only - a feature common to these pieces.
Price Range: $250-$350
Value points: As for other chests

Simpler mahogany tallboy, without brushing slide and with a plain frieze under the cornice. Chamfered and reeded sides to the top half and serpentine bracket feet add quality to this example.
Price Range: $75-$90
Value points: Chamfered and reeded sides  Serpentine and bracket feet

More ornate mahogany tallboy, with dentil moulding; the frieze under it is decorated with a blind fret pattern. The reeded pillars let into the sides have decorative brass mounts and the finely figured drawers have a cross banding inside the cock bead. Serpentine bracket feet complete a high quality example.
Price Range: $200-$250
Value points: Decoration and carving  Dentil frieze and blind fret

CHESTS ON CHESTS
The grandest form of walnut chest on chest, incorporating an inlaid ’sunburst’ in the bottom drawer, brushing slide and canted corners on the top half, the corners being fluted with cross-grained moulding. The drawers are veneered with finely matched walnut and have herring-bone cross-banding and a walnut cock-bead. c.1715
A plainer walnut chest on chest with inlaid herring-bone to cross-banded drawers edged with ovolo lip moulding to cover the carcase edges. No slide, canted corners or sunburst.
A fine quality mahogany chest on chest with cross-banded drawers with cockbeading, mounted on serpentine bracket feet. The top chest features pillared fluted corners with brass mounts and a blind fret beneath the dentil top moulding and the pillars.
A good quality mahogany chest on chest on serpentine bracket feet, with reeded canted corners to the top chest.
c.1770  A plain mahogany chest on chest with no decoration, on bracket feet. Also made in oak.
A good quality mahogany chest on chest with reeded canted corners, key pattern to the top moulding and an inlaid ebony and boxwood stringing line round each drawer. Often found in oak as well as mahogany.
A Chippendale mahogany chest on chest, of high quality, with broken pediment, dentil decorated cornice, brushing slide and serpentine bracket feet.
A bow-fronted chest on chest with dentil top moulding and splay feet.
An interesting bow-fronted chest on chest on Hepplewhite-style splayed feet. The top shows the black inlaid stringing lines popularised by the revival of classical design. Note, too, how the gradation of the drawers produces a better effect than 363 which is altogether an inferior piece.
1800-1820 Commode
A semi-circular commode on tapering legs.
satinwood inlaid two door
A Hepplewhite serpentine-front commode chest of drawers in mahogany. Fitted with slide. The fin-lire projections on the sides and the shaped apron beneath together with shape of moulding all point towards the work of this designer. An elegant piece with fine patination and original handles.
A mahogany serpentine -front chest on heavily carved cabriole legs. The design is similar to Chippendale but shows later influences in the acanthus leaf carving and scrolling of the legs. It is a type often reproduced.
An interesting design of Thomas Hope influence, showing Egyptian heads and ebony stringing lines.
A mahogany commode on spirally fluted tapering legs. A more classical design not unlike those illustrated by Sheraton.