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: MILITARY CHESTS
About 1810-1915
Teak military chest with removable bill feet.
Regulation campaign furniture for British army officers, dating originally from the Napoleonic War; and still available in virtually identical form from the Army & Navy Stores in London as late as 1915. Originally transported in green-painted pine packing-cases.
Made in two parts for easy transportation, with screw-on feet, usually of bun type, but on early Regency examples could be carved paw; some just have rectangular block, occasionally fitted with small castors. Most, but not all, have heavy brass or iron carrying-handles at sides. Corners generally protected by flush-fitting brass caps. Brass locks, escutcheons, hinges etc. Various drawer arrangements most common; two small and one long in top, two long below, all of equal depth. Back solid and polished.
Variations include:Central fall-front secretaire at top with square drawer either side.
Military chest with secretaire drawer.
Full width secretaire drawer. Fall-front section as above but containing dressing accessories.
Six or eight shallow drawers in lower half (like a plan chest) for storage of trousers.
Durable, inexpensive woods  cheap mahogany, cedar, camphor, padouk, oak. Drawer-linings of oak, pine, sometimes camphor (to repel moths). Far Eastern and Indian versions made also in teak. Modern reproductions in pine or various veneers, popularly yew.
Solid wood, only rarely veneered (some early examples with amboyna, a type of padouk). Glued dovetail construction. Indian and Far Eastern versions often crudely cut and ill-fitting (hence easily identifiable).
Generally undecorated. Occasionally brass stringing and restrained inlay found on Regency pieces.
Always countersunk brass handles, mostly of rectangular shape, attached with countersunk brass screws.
Stain and/or wax polish on early examples. French polish on many Victorian pieces.
VALUES
Disproportionately expensive to their simple appearance and straightforward construction. A secretaire drawer and a Regency date will push the price well into the thousands.

Only the later, plain versions still in the hundreds.

CHESTS  military English
A superb example in which the secretaire folds down to reveal a line of three drawers on top, pigeon-holes with a central drawer below and a lift-up desk for maps and papers. Brass protects the corners and is also used as inlay as well as on the traditional folding handles. The paw feet presumably are easy to screw off  if not this would defeat the whole object of the piece which, of course, comes in half and is provided with carrying handles. c. 1810
The military chest first came into use in the Napoleonic wars. Ideally it has no projections such as handles and is projected by metal fittings at all vulnerable points so that it can be loaded easily  an early appreciation of containerisation. They are found in mahogany, padouk, cedar and camphor woods, i.e. solid strong woods, not pine or veneered as are some of the reproductions now being hugely reproduced as campaign furniture. Clearly the secretaire feature adds considerably to the value.
Another good example unusually well fitted inside. Made in cedar wood and with the usual brass edges and carrying handles. c. 1810
Moving down the ranks, this is more typical of the small secretaire type sometimes found in the form of a writing slope which opens out. Made by Day & Sons of The Strand it is very solidly constructed in cedar () with utilitarian handles and the minimum of brass work.
Early 19th century
A simple military chest in padouk with another style of folding brass handles. Again brass corners and carrying handles but the locks are of the ordinary variety. It now sits on a plinth made later. Perhaps it was brought home and used in retirement.
A collector’s specimen cabinet in maple, with spiral pillars at the sides, and a glass panelled door enclosing the twelve drawers. The carved decoration has a mask and leaf form over the door. Quite a remarkable specialist piece. c. 1860
An Edwardian Wellington chest, made by the celebrated firm of Edwards and Roberts, who have, as usual, used all the decorative motifs associated with Sheraton  satinwood inlaid shells, ribbons, husks, etc., etc.
C. 1900

Military chest

1. Made of solid mahogany, cedarwood, camphorwood or padouk wood.
2. Cast-brass backplates
recessed into drawer fronts with square, flush-fitting, hinged drawer handles. Brass corners and reinforcements set flush into the wood, secured with countersunk screws.
3. Flush escutcheons, locks with brass cases and brass levers.
4. All sides of chest in solid wood built like a trunk, with no backboard planking.
5. Oak-lined drawers with reinforced pine runners, half-round moulding on insides, drawer bottoms with grain running from side to side with central strengthening batten.
6. Fitted helmet drawer, or small secretaire fall-front, either the width of the top drawer or fitted centrally between two small flanking drawers.
7. Iron carrying handles fixed with steel screws on backplates.
8. Both surfaces of top and bottom and corresponding brass corner-pieces scratched and scuffed with wear.
9. Where there is a secretaire drawer or writing compartment, brass catches to secure fall-front, cleated sides to writing surface, usually inset with tooled leather, brass double-hinges to flap. Both halves of equal depth.
Likely restoration and repair
10. Original fitted drawers damaged, new drawer-linings or top drawer-front repaired, joined or replaced where fall-front or helmet drawer has been removed or converted.
11. Iron carrying handles replaced with brass ones.
12. Turned or bun feet added at later date, usually late
nineteenth century.
13. Top and base of different depths: usually some of the central section has been
damaged and the second or third drawer and frame cut down and repaired.
14. Brass corner-pieces replaced with thinner, more yellow brass than originals, lacking any sign of patination, build-up of dirt or corrosion around edges.
Historical background
In sharp contrast to the ebullience and indiscriminate mixing of almost every period and style by the nineteenth-century furniture designers, the travelling furniture made for the officers in the Napoleonic wars has endured as a reminder that Victorian design could be plain, simple and eminently practical. Whole suites of campaign furniture or military furniture was made between about 1800 and 1870. Some were quite elaborate and all were hinged, folded or divided into more or less regulation-sized chests with brass-reinforced corners to prevent damage in transit. Voyages across the Atlantic still took many months: important passengers furnished empty sea-cabins with similar travelling furniture. A few examples of these grander pieces remain, such as glassdoored display cabinets or bookcases folding to the size
of cabin trunks, but most of it has not survived. Best known are military chests, made in two halves, with a variety of different fittings, such as small secretaire drawers or deep helmet drawers.
Similar in concept were the tall specimen cabinets known as Wellington chests, with hinged side flaps which lock over the drawer edges to prevent them from opening in transit.
There is, however, no evidence that the Duke of Wellington ever owned or used such a chest on any of his many campaigns.
Construction and materials
Military chest
Military chests were always made in solid wood, usually mahogany, although padouk, cedar and camphorwood were also used, for they were proof against damp and moths on long campaigns and distant journeys. The construction is solid, with mitred dovetailing. Drawers have oak linings with pine-reinforced runners and half-round corner mouldings on the inside, firmly glued to the sides and bottom. No nails are used in the main construction  after joints had been cut they were coated with strong glue and clamped together.
The two carrying handles on each half were originally of iron, but most of them have been replaced with brass handles to match the flush, sunk drawer fittings. For obvious reasons, military chests were not mounted on any kind of feet or base. Occasionally they might be fitted with small castors mounted on additional blocks.
Wellington chest
Wellington chests were also originally made in solid wood, either mahogany, rosewood or imported walnut, but from c.1850 onwards, having been adopted as a piece of library furniture or as specimen chests, they were frequently also veneered. They were as solidly made as military chests, with no decoration except for small `capitals’ at the top of the hinged side-flap and its corresponding upright on the other side. Drawers always had small, turned, wooden knobs, and many of them were originally lined with velvet, divided
into compartments and sometimes fitted with grooved glass lids. In the second half of the nineteenth century, veneers were on good-quality carcases of ‘baywood’ or red pine, in walnut, rosewood, mahogany and maple. There was no cockbeading round the drawers, which fitted flush without escutcheons. The only lock was in the hinged side-flap.
Variations
Military chests were unique to a particular echelon of society, whether in military service, travelling or going abroad on consular or diplomatic business. The rank and file in the army had no such luxuries, neither did poor emigrants who undertook long voyages in extreme discomfort. Its parallel is the brassbound chest, made and used by all types of traveller, sometimes in brass-studded, leather-covered wood, or plain, iron-bound, wooden chests. Military chests probably evolved from the plain chests of drawers made in two
halves of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The most singular difference was the lack of lock and lock rail to the top drawers of both halves of the traditional chest of drawers.
Far right: library document chest in solid walnut, c.1870.
Right: plain mahogany
Wellington chest with graduated drawers and hinged locking flap.
Reproductions
Although not campaign or military furniture, contemporary pieces for use in libraries, draughtsmen’s offices and for keeping documents and maps are of the same family as military chests in their totally functional design, lack of ornament, beautiful finish and excellent craftsmanship. It is as well to remember, however, that multitudes of small shops were equipped with beautifully made, built-in flights of drawers which, with little effort, can be transformed into very similar-looking pieces.
The attractive, clean lines and elegant brass finish has been copied by many small furniture-makers in small chests of drawers.
In relatively recent years American reproduction furniture manufacturers have produced some good pieces of similar appearance, but they are almost always made in heavy
chipboard, veneered in `cherrywood’ or ‘yew wood’ and made with modern techniques and with bonded joins, which are not intended to deceive or masquerade as genuine.
Price bands
Wellington chest, plain, solid mahogany, c.1860, 550-800.
Veneered in walnut or bird’s eye maple, c.1800, 450-750.
Library chests in walnut, mahogany or rosewood, 750-1,000.
Military chest in padouk, cedar or camphorwood, 600-1.000.