Antique Dressing Chest, Military Chest and Wellington Chest
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
Tags: 1865, chest of drawers, Chests, chests of drawers, cupboard, EDWARDIAN, furniture, mahogany, military chest, mirror, twenty years