Antique Serpentine Chests of Drawers
Serpentine chest of drawers
Curving shapes began to come into furniture design from the reign of Queen Anne onwards, as can be seen from the pediments of secretaire bookcases and, in particular, the spoon-back chair with cabriole legs. Techniques of cutting wood into curved shapes took time to master, and it was not until the Chippendale period, when many features of French design were incorporated into English taste, that serpentine-fronted desks and chests of drawers came into fashion, around c.1750 onwards.
Those at the top of the social scale in England who were privileged enough to own and enjoy beautiful, immaculately furnished houses were not allowed to keep them all to themselves however. All the country seats of wealthy landowners and aristocratic families had ‘open days’ when groups of people came to look over every room in the house, bedrooms included. Provincial ladies and gentlemen arrived to demand entry whether the owners were in residence or not, and all furniture became as much a part of the show
as the house itself. Chests of drawers, up to now no more than functional domestic pieces of furniture, evolved into the English equivalent of the French ‘drawing-room commode’, and even the plainest pieces, derived from Chippendale’s grand designs, had curved aprons and feet, and were made in beautifully figured woods and veneers.
The serpentine-fronted chest of drawers was made throughout the mid-eighteenth century and was only replaced by the bow-fronted design during the Sheraton period.
Signs of authenticity
1. Fine-grained, well-figured San Domingo or Cuban mahogany on cheaper mahogany carcase, or imported red Scandinavian pine.
2. Flush-sunk escutcheons to locks with no ornamental surround.
3. Drawer handles with plain swan-neck handles, cast-brass bolt-heads with pummel pins, small circular backplates.
4. From c.1770 drawer bottoms with grain running side to side with central bearer for extra support.
5. Drawers and dustboards not running, full depth of, piece.
6. Dustboards in two joined pieces with front shaped piece added separately.
7. Where chest of drawers has canted corners, matching canted corners to bracket feet.
8. Where there are carved pillar motifs on sides with rounded
bases, there is a corresponding rounded profile to bracket feet.
9. Graduated drawer depths, sometimes with baize-lined fitted top drawer.
10. Brushing slides with polished surface, cleated edges, small loop handles.
11. Lip, thumb or reeded moulding to tops with good overhang, sometimes serpentine-shape on sides.
Likely restoration and repair
12. Plain canted corners with later carving or reeding to increase value. Wood will seem rough to the touch compared to rest of piece.
13. Dustboards in single piece of timber indicates a replacement for originals. Suspect more restoration if this is the case.
14. Plain square-cornered bracket feet replacing originals
with rounded or canted corners where originals have been damaged.
15. New tops where originals have been damaged with alcohol-based lotions, etc. or reveneered for same reason. Back edges of new top will not have same patination as sides, the veneer will be thinner.
16. Brushing slides damaged and removed: lock rail to top drawer should be examined for disturbance, top edges of sides with reeding or carving may finish abruptly.
17. Cockbeading too thick and secured with pins indicates replacement of originals, or new drawer fronts.
18. Drawer-front carcase with grain of wood running in continuous line made from steam-moulded timbers of considerably later date.
Construction and materials
Serpentine-fronted chests of drawers were made in a similar way to spoon-back chairs. The timber was cut in curving shapes which were then veneered because of the partially exposed end-grain. The construction of carcases began to change from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, with new joints for sides, such as the mitred dovetail which joined woods at right-angles on the end-grain and allowed the sides of chest furniture to be built with vertical timbers, as opposed to the earlier method of horizontal frame and panel
construction.
Many of these new techniques became possible because of the use of cheaper mahogany as carcase wood which did not split as easily as more coarsely grained oak. The tops of chests of drawers were no
longer made to conceal the joins with small cornice moulding, but could be laid over the carcase and secured, then edged like table tops with thumb or lip moulding. Canted corners were often part of the design of serpentine-fronted chests of drawers as an aid to
construction as much as a decorative feature.
Detail
Drawers were edged with elegant cock beading, handles were simple swan-necked brass with cast-brass bolts and pummel pins, bracket feet were joined with shaped aprons following the graceful lines of the serpentine front. Bracket feet were often curved and referred to as `French feet’ because of their resemblance to the scrolled feet of French commodes.
Variations
Curved shapes of any sort were difficult to make without sophisticated tools and techniques, and serpentine-fronted furniture of any sort is extremely rare among genuine country pieces. Some late eighteenth century plain-fronted, well-made oak chests of drawers might have tops cut in serpentine shapes as a concession to fashionable styles, but in general chests of drawers of the period continued to be made in traditional fashion, often still using the frame and panel technique which had long been superseded by mitred dovetailing on more sophisticated furniture.
If serpentine-fronted pine chests are found, they are sadly most likely to be later nineteenth-century pieces, originally veneered and recently stripped. By that period it was possible to shape softwoods by steaming and clamping them into shape and the timbers seen in the top edges of drawers will have the grain running in a continuous line.
Below left: an early George III chest in fine, well-figured walnut veneer.
Below: an example in the Chippendale manner, c.1770.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
The serpentine front is the least copied and reproduced of all chests of drawers. The bow-front is much easier to manufacture, and serpentine-fronted designs are more heavily constructed and the shape is less commercial or convenient to manufacture. Nineteenth-century, so-called, serpentine-fronted chests of drawers on pine carcases with thin mahogany veneer were made in some quantities, but the positive sinuous curve is reduced to a mere wavy line lacking any authority. The bases presented problems, and were sometimes exaggerated with thick mouldings which protruded several inches out from the bottom drawer.
Many reproductions are Continental: French versions were much larger, originally well-veneered, but often on poor-quality oak carcases. Dutch `commodes’ in over-decorated marquetry, usually with a bulbous curved shape known as `kettle-shaped’, were made continuously and well into the nineteenth century. Ornate French serpentine commodes with heavy ormolu decoration on the canted corners, heavy drawer-handles and ornamental escutcheons were very popular at one time with the Victorians and there are still
large numbers of them around.
Price bands
Finest-quality mahogany with veneered drawer fronts and shaped bracket feet, c.1770, $2,750-3,250.
Georgian mahogany with fluted and canted corners, shaped bracket feet and brushing slide, $3,800-4,500.
Georgian with fine detailing and veneering, 14,000 5,000.
Nineteenth century versions,$1,000-1,750.
Tags: backplates, bottom drawer, cabriole legs, chest of drawers, Chests, chests of drawers, chippendale, chippendale period, commode, cuban mahogany, DRAWERS, English, furniture, mahogany, mid eighteenth century, Queen Anne, secretaire, secretaire bookcases, Serpentine, Sheraton, wood