Antique Chest Of Drawers

CHESTS  oak on turned stands,
1680-1730
Four moulded front and plain oak chests on stands, showing different forms of both drawer mouldings and stand turning.
It is nearly always the stand and rarely the chest which provides the problem of verification. Even in oak the weight of the chest proved too much for many of the relatively thin legs used, even though often the oak stands are more squat in design than the walnut ones. Usually the bottom drawer is genuine, though the legs often need close examination.
Replacement buns below the stretcher are quite common and reasonably acceptable, original buns should have some sign of age if not a touch of rot or damage.
This chest has brass drop handles, varied drawer mouldings and a half-round moulding to the carcase front. The stand has a single drawer and five robust baluster-turned legs united by a simple curved stretcher above bun feet. The panelled sides also incorporate a variation of moulding between chest and stand. A good example.
The drawer mouldings on the chest are all similar. There is a half-round moulding on the carcase front, which is repeated round the drawers in the stand although the latter are not moulded. A bold top moulding, showing later influences than the simpler design of 323, is echoed round the top of the stand but it is not a mirror image.
The stand is on six rather thin legs with inverted cup-turning and rather elongated buns and thick stretchers, but has a nicely shaped apron with a lip moulding to emphasise the ogee curves. The side of the stand is not panelled, unlike the chest, but this is a common difference as can be seen in the next two examples. Original handles and scutcheon plates are lost. The fact that the drawers in the base are not moulded like those in the top would prompt a close investigation to detect a possible marriage.
A chest on stand with plain panelled drawers and drop handles. There is a half-round moulding to the carcase front and reasonably bold top and bottom mouldings to the chest, which echo each other in a mirror image. A further moulding decorates the top and bottom edges of the stand. The sides of the chest are panelled and it has been made in two havles for ease of handling (as opposed to being cut at a later date).
The stand is on four rather weak legs joined by turned stretchers using baluster shapes. They and the stretchers are probably not original. The drawer panels in the stand, however, certainly match those in the chest.
1700-1730
A chest on stand with plain early eighteenth century drawers with no crossbanding or decoration, and fitted with later pierced mid-eighteenth century backplates to the handles. There is a double-D (or double half-round) moulding on the carcase edges of the chest which is repeated around the drawer in the stand. The sides of the chest is panelled. The top and bottom mouldings are bold, as is that around the top of the stand, which has a shaped apron like that of 324 but without the lip moulding around the curves.
The six legs are of an unusual shape, with a heavy turned knob at the top repeated on the bun feet, which are linked by a square stretcher with ogee curves shaping its outward edges. The design of these legs does not somehow ring quite true, mainly due to the unimaginative turning of the bulbous knobs. Handles later.

CHESTS  early oak with moulded fronts
A less decorated example, illustrated with one lower door open to show the three drawers fitted in the lower part. Many of the mouldings and applied split balusters are made of fruit-wood which would originally have been ebonised. The piece is typically Anglo-Dutch and the ivory and pearl inlay, of Flemish-Spanish origin, have been referred to in the introduction to this section. Notice the original iron loop handles on the drawers. c.1660
A typical early oak example in which the lower drawers are enclosed behind doors whose moulding and decoration matches that of the upper drawer. The piece is in two halves which can be lifted separately, the join being hidden by a case moulding, and the lower half is on bun feet. Note the applied decoration and the receding ‘chequer-board’ centre panel in the top drawer.
A small oak chest on bun feet missing some of its brass drop handles. There is a pleasant split bobbin decoration applied horizontally under the top and between each drawer.
The remaining decoration consists of pairs of split balusters applied vertically beside each drawer. The moulding on the drawer fronts is very simple, and the top drawer is simply panelled. Note the thicker top with its simple edge. Later handles. c. 1680
A small oak chest with fruitwood front, 34ins. wide, made in one carcase piece, with the typical deep top drawer which is left over from the two types above, where the lower drawers were cupboarded. Now, in this piece, the lower drawers have emerged in their own right and are suitably moulded. The decoration of the top drawer is interesting, with four ivory ‘buttons’ placed around an oval moulding. Note the ’stump’ feet, which are formed by a continuation of the vertical carcase frame. Handles missing. c. 1670
The simplest later form of these chests with each drawer divided into two panels by the mouldings. There is a simple half-round moulding applied across the carcase front between each drawer, a precursor of the half-round or D moulding of the walnut period. The bracket feet have been added later. Instead of the simple, thin top of the earlier examples, the top has now become thick enough to have a `thumb nail’ edge moulding around it. Replacement handles. 1700-1720
Veneered in very thick elm with fine bold mouldings not only at top and bottom but where the piece would originally have come in half. The veneers are still arranged on the drawers in two halves as they would have been had they been moulded first. Again, colour most important affect on price. c. 1680