Oak Chests on Turned Stands
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.
Tags: bottom drawer, bun feet, chest, Chests, curves, design, drawer, DRAWERS, mirror, moulding, mouldings, Original, Replacement, stretcher, thin legs