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 OF DRAWERS - 1860-1930
The period 1860-1930 is not particularly associated with beautiful chests of drawers in the traditional antique collector’s view. Wooden knobs and nasty turned feet are what spring immediately to mind. Unlike the 18th century, where the chest played a decorative role, the chest of drawers was relegated to the bedroom in the 19th century and replaced by display cabinets and other pieces in the more public rooms. Thus the pieces tend to be commodious and very functional, with some design aberrations as a gesture to current taste, but not very lovely.
At the end of the century, back went the chest to 18th century styling in addition to current forms. It was perhaps the Arts and Crafts Movement who reclaimed the chest of drawers as a more interesting piece and,
subsequently, the Cotswold designers  Gimson, the Barnsleys and Gordon Russell  produced pieces in solid native woods that were based on traditional forms but clean in line and of pleasing appearance. The trade
always produced pine and deal chests in quantity and the chest also appeared, of course, in Jacobethan, burr walnut bedappled and plain forms.
A mahogany chest of drawers with twist-turned columns down the sides and a heavy, serpentine-moulded top drawer. The mahogany veneers used are of high quality, with well-matched figure repeated from drawer to drawer, but the overall effect is heavy. It is a type popular from the 1840s onwards, although by 1880 it must have been out of fashion. 1840-1870
Another chest in mahogany of sub-classical design of a type originating in the 1840s and based on French classical types. Well made, with well matched veneers but nowadays considered ponderous. 1840-1860
A mahogany chest with three deep drawers at the top. Sometimes the middle deep top drawer is fitted as a secretaire, which adds to value. The quality of veneers is good but the effect is ponderous, particularly
the bottom apron which appears to have a drawer in it. These chests, like the previous two, were built usually of deal, with mahogany veneer, for cheapness and many now suffer from missing pieces of veneer due to wear. It is not difficult to repair small missing pieces but the effect before repair tends to put purchasers off. 1850-1870
Another ponderous chest, but this time bow-fronted. Not really of the correct proportions for modification to an ‘18th century’ bow front on splayed feet by a `converter’, so has to be sold more or less for what
it is. 1850-1880
Possibly the epitome of the good quality Victorian mahogany chest of drawers  tall, bow fronted, with splendid use of `feather’ mahogany veneers. Capacious, well-built and with drawers fitted to run
smoothly. The wooden knobs have been turned with some decorative ridging which refines the bluntness of the ordinary bulbous knob. The bun-shaped and tapered turned feet are also typical. The gradation of the
drawer depths is also well handled on this example. Altogether a very professional piece of furniture but, unlike 18th century chests, not very suitable for rooms other than the bedroom and therefore restricted in price accordingly. 1850-1870
Back to the 18th century  a mahogany bow-fronted chest on splay feet in the ‘Hepplewhite’ style but with original wooden knobs, whereas Hepplewhite would have had pressed brass plates and handles.
Made in quite large quantities and now often `converted’ to an 18th century piece by modification back to brass handles. If a bit tall for 18th century proportion, then it might be further modified by having a drawer
removed and the carcase re-jigged. 1880-1900
A chest made by Shoolbred & Co. in emulation of a French Empire style, with a marble top. It is made in solid mahogany with mahogany veneered drawer fronts and solid mahogany mouldings, so must have been expensive. Now considered somewhat dark and sombre, so not particularly valued.
A ‘Chippendale’ mahogany serpentine fronted chest of drawers, with a brushing slide and canted corners with blind fretted decoration, on bracket feet. A good reproduction of a mid-18th century chest.
A mahogany serpentine- fronted chest on chest incorporating two short drawers, six long drawers and a brushing slide. The canted corners are embellished with blind fretwork of Chippendale pattern and the
top moulding is dentilled. Although the quality of workmanship appears to be good, the proportion is too cramped for 18th century work. Doubtless a useful piece for the smaller rooms of the early 20th century.
1910-1930
A typical Edwardian chest of drawers, with solid plinth base. Available at the time in either ’satin walnut’  which is a kind of solid yellow-brown wood, imported from America  or oak. It has pressed bronze
handles and plates. The incised horizontal moulding machined across the drawer fronts and down the sides is a feature of the period. 1900-1910
An Edwardian mahogany chest of drawers, on a solid plinth base, with satinwood crossbanding and oval pressed brass handles to give a ‘Sheraton’ look.
Another typical Edwardian form of chest, known at the time as a ‘Scotch’ chest. The drawer edges are bevelled or fielded. The arrangement of the top drawers, with one deep central unit and pairs of small
drawers flanking it, dates back to press chests of the 18th century. Available in walnut or mahogany. 1900-1910
A cupboard chest of drawers favoured by Percy Wells for use in the bedroom, where the fall-front cupboard, intended for hats, had ‘met with cordial approval’. Presumably this was intended for ladies, since the vision of lustful 1920s male cottage visitors, dashing into the bedroom with their hats still on, having missed the hall stand or rack recommended by Wells (elsewhere) in their ardour on the way, and stuffing the offending garment into the top of the cupboard chest (before or afterwards) ‘with cordial approval’ is even more than D.H. Lawrence might conceive. Actually Wells also recommended similar cupboard chests, with added boot and book shelves below and above respectively, for the living room. There is a hint that the fall front chest might replace the bureau, using the flap for writing purposes. c.1920
An oak chest of drawers of slightly progressive design with ‘oxidised’ metal handles. A reduction by a commercial manufacturer of ‘art nouveau’ styling to a simpler form Plain Furniture is on the way. 1900-1910
Three waxed oak chests by Maurice Adams, showing reliance on late 17th and early 18th century designs. A turned-leg stretchered variety for the raised first example, called a ‘Cromwell’ design by the maker; bracket feet and bun feet for the more conventional types.
Three mahogany reproduction style chests from Maurice Adams. The feet are a semi-cabriole splayed variety in deference to prevailing I good’ taste, i.e. for quasi-Queen Anne. c.1925
Chest of drawers in oak with walnut handles by Gordon Russell. Wardrobe and mirror to match. Note the inlaid ebony-andbox chequer lines beloved of the movement, particularly the Cotswold Crafties. Simple and
functional: the wooden handles are a particular trademark of Russell’s. c.1930

CHESTS OF DRAWERS (BUREAUX) AND DRESSING CHESTS (DRESSERS)
About 1890-1940
Nine-drawer oak chest designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, about 1902.
In modern American usage, a bureau is a chest of drawers; in Britain it is a slope-front desk. In the USA, a dresser is a dressing-table or dressing-chest with a mirror; in the UK it is a kitchen cupboard or country-made sideboard, usually with shelves above.
From their positions of honour in the living. room, where they were repositories of heirlooms and dowries, epitomized by the ‘bottom drawer’ in which the bride-to-be tucked away her trousseau, chests of drawers were relegated to the bedroom, eventually to become ’storage units’, oak dressing bureau by Buckley, 1890-1910: The chest of drawers survived as an independent piece of furniture, often bow-fronted with pilasters and turned feet, but was also adapted to form part of a bedroom suite as a drawing-chest (dresser) with mirror attached.
1910-25: The need to economize on living space made the bulky chest of drawers a prime candidate for rationalization.
1925-40: The Art Moderne style did little in its defence beyond lavishing expensive veneers on it. Under reformist influence, it became at first purely functional but still autonomous, until absorbed into a storage system of shelving, hanging and drawer space composed of units, either built-in or flexible, often put together by early DIY enthusiasts.
For them, a New York cabinet-maker wrote a book called How to Make Your Own Bedroom Furniture. In the first six months, it sold I I copies. The publishers changed the title to How to Do It in the Bedroom, and  dressing chest with asymmetrical Mirror came a best-seller. DIY was not really a 20thC invention. From the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, much was made by unskilled homemakers, and in the late 19thC, amateur woodwork became a cult that accounts for many otherwise inexplicable departures from the norm.
1890-1910: Mahogany, walnut, oak, used in the solid or as veneers on pine base. Drawers often lined with cedar.
1910-40: Oak, ash, walnut, mahogany, satin birch, Canary whitewood, used in the solid for drawer-fronts. Veneered plywood on softwood frames for carcases.
Custom-built pieces hand-made, mass-produced merchandise heavily reliant on machines. Some DIY artefacts remarkable for methods previously unknown and never- repeated, e.g. a highboy converted from an upright piano, the drawers assembled with screwed-on angle irons.
1890-1925: Carving, by hand or machine; mass-produced marquetry motifs, many in pseudo-Federal style, available by the dozen for insertion at furniture factory.
1925-40: Little decoration other than on reproductions and pastiches of ‘Jacobean’ (vaguely 17thC) chests of drawers with geometric mouldings and split banister turnings on drawer-fronts.
Traditional types stained dark and French polished; dressing-chests fitted with mirrors in matching frames.
Handles: Turned wood, ornate metal simulating brass or bronze.
Art Moderne types veneered in exotic woods or, if solid, limed or painted and cleaned off, leaving pigment in grain. Dressing-chest fitted with frameless, bevelled mirrors, sometimes of eccentric shape.
Handles: Wooden bars, oxidized or chromium-plated metal grips.
Late-19thC mahogany chests of drawers with cedar drawer-linings a good buy for those who like their rich, heavy look. Good examples of Art Moderne highly priced, poor ones not worth having.
Many a late-19thC chest of drawers with bow front, heavy pilasters, turned feet and wooden knobs has been made into a Federal type by removing the pilasters, reducing the width, replacing the turned feet with brackets and the wooden knobs with reproduction brass handles.

French CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1890 to 1940
Macassar ebony chest of drawers, 1930s.
1890-1920: Sinuous art nouveau line lends itself to leggy items – tables, chairs – more readily than to carcase pieces. Leading practitioners (Majorelle, Galle) adapt bow-fronted types by framing within stem-like mouldings, placing them on swept plinths and decorating with stylized plant forms, carved or inlaid – reminders that original chests were hollowed-out trees.
1910-40, Industrial Design: Theories of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, combined with practicalities of mechanized production, reduce chest to angular carcase.
1920-40, Art Deco: In reaction against industrial design, commode is treated by designers (Ruhlmann, Dunand, Follot) as item fit for drawing-room of a princess rather than cubicle of an institution. About 1930, price of one by Ruhlmann, Paris, higher than an important 18thC example – often source of inspiration exploited in novel ways. Style soon becomes debased, with flashy ornament added to angular or boldly curved shapes; but between extremes of machined austerity and Art Deco kitsch, are many hand-made, simply designed and discreetly decorated chests of drawers.
Except for birch plywood and Scandinavian pine used as secondary woods, most of the main timber for furniture of all types is imported into Europe from the tropics. Art Deco designers also use ivory, semi-precious stones and silver for inlay.
Although much woodworking machinery now in use, old techniques survive, hand-skills being essential for fine Art Deco commodes; but by 1930s, most dovetail joints and mortises cut by machines.
Rear view of handmade drawer with lipped front.
Art nouveau and Art Deco: Marquetry, carving.
Industrial design: Almost none.
Mainly French polishing. Some Art Deco commodes lacquered. Industrial design favoured natural finish paint, cellulose.
Art nouveau and Art Deco commodes, expensive when new, now command very high prices. Best buy: medium range 1930s chests of drawers in natural wood, hand-dovetailed.
Before paying a high price for an Art Deco commode, check that any veneers are in reasonably good condition. They were usually knife-cut very thin and prone to cracking and peeling.

CHESTS: MULE, DOWER OR COUNTER CHESTS
About 1630-1800
Late-17thC oak mule chest.
Alidded chest with one or two drawers added below. A transitional piece in the 17thC, marking the change from simple chest to full chest of drawers; a country piece in the 18thC.
Thought by some to have been used by tradesmen; many have a small till or partitioned area in the drawer(s), suitable for coins. Early inventories sometimes refer to the drawers themselves as ’tilles’.
Three, sometimes two, panels, with one long or two (occasionally three) short drawers
below. In 17thC often made in two sections, a projecting mitred moulding  echoing that on base  concealing the join. Can be very simple, resembling plain panelled coffers, or more sophisticated, with applied and/or
inlaid decoration. 18thC versions have fielded, and sometimes shaped, panels. Stile, bun or bracket feet according to date.
Oak, walnut, occasionally mahogany; elm, chestnut and other local woods (though few examples survive).
Framed and panelled; earliest with pegged, but most with glued, mortise-and-tenon joints. Early drawers rebated and nailed; later dovetailed and glued (see CHESTS OF DRAWERS: EARLY PANELLED OAK.
DECORATION AND HANDLES
Carving, inlay, applied mouldings in 17thC. Turned wooden knobs replaced by brass ball handles after 1700.
Stain; wax polish.
RELATIVE VALUES
Earliest and most decorative invariably in four figures; plain 18thC in three. Prices considerably reduced if stand is wrong.
For further details of all points see CHESTS OF DRAWERS: EARLY PANELLED OAK, P. 84 and CHESTS OF DRAWERS, VENEERED.
The term ‘dower’ is self-explanatory, but is also used to describe the 18thC chest of trunk form mounted on a low frame, with a flat or domed top, heavy brass carrying handles, a shaped and/or carved apron or frieze,
and cabriole, bracket or straight feet according to date. Imported Oriental lacquer trunks were often displayed in this way (on English-made stands) in the 18thC and 19thC.
Late 17th learly- 18thC leather bunk mounted on a stand.

CHESTS ON STANDS
About 1680-1730
Many fashionable chests of drawers of this period were raised about 2 feet/60 cm from the ground on turned stands. By 1730 these seem to have been replaced by the more capacious tallboy. The information below
relates to the stands only; for details of the chest sections see under CHESTS OF DRAWERS: PANELLED OAK p.84 and CHESTS OF DRAWERS: VENEERED, p.86.
Late-17thC chest on stand of William & Mary type.
Pre-Queen Anne stands have one long (or after 1690 three short) drawer(s) supported on six turned legs joined by a platform, or turned stretchers with bun feet below. Cabriole legs with pad or hoof feet and without stretchers introduced about 1700. On both types, there is sometimes a shaped apron below the drawer(s). On three-drawer types, the central drawer is shallower than the side ones. Inverted projecting moulding at top of stand (into which chest slots) echoes similar moulded cornice at top of chest.
Early-18thc type with base in form of a lowboy or side-table.
Oak; solid walnut for legs; walnut veneer on pine for drawer sections and platform stretchers; oak for drawer linings (except for the drawer fronts).
Glued mortise-and-tenon joints. Turned legs dowelled into frame. Cabriole legs extend upwards to form corner stiles of framing.
Structural weakness and the partiality of wood-beetles for walnut have often contributed to the disappearance of the stand. The remaining chest section can easily be converted into a standard chest of drawers by the addition of a polished top  the original top being rough and concealed by the cornice and bun feet. These can often be identified by the presence of three rather than two small drawers at the top.
Drawers and drawer frieze as for chests, otherwise very plain.
Wax polish after varnish. Occasionally japanned. Spiral turnings occasionally ebonised (i.e. stained black).
VALUES
It is unusual to find a chest on stand without at least replacement feet, if not legs too. Even so, prices are well into the thousands. Replacement legs and stretchers, even if the drawer section is right, may reduce the
value by as much as 40 per cent. Fine and extensive marquetry is a huge bonus, possibly raising the price to a five-figure sum.

CHESTS OF DRAWERS: EARLY PANELLED OAK
About 1650-1730
Oak chest of about 1680, with applied, mitred and geometrical mouldings.
Distinctive, often ornamental, pieces of furniture made by traditional methods. Still produced by provincial and country makers long after more sophisticated walnut-veneered chests were introduced from the Continent in about 1670.
Various combinations of single and double depth drawers, cupboard doors enclosing drawers, and chest with hinged lid (latter early type). Four-drawer version became the norm in about 1680.
Sometimes two separate sections, join concealed by projecting mitred moulding. Shallower mouldings are found between all drawers (or cupboard).
Two small, or one long, drawer(s) at top above three long, inside seldom reaching right to back of carcase. Separate overhanging top with moulding below (thumb-nail moulding from about 1700). Similar inverted moulding at base. All parts of front (and sometimes side frieze) decorated with mitred mouldings, and often split turnings too, sometimes combined with inlay. Drawer fronts divided decoratively into two panels. Stile feet (i.e. the stiles of the carcase extend below the base moulding) until about 1690 when bun feet appeared.
Framed and panelled with glued (i.e. no longer pegged) joints.
Early drawers with thick sides (about 3/4 inch/2 cm) rebated and nailed. Thick groove in middle of side cut to run on bearers nailed to inside of carcase. Two or three crude through-dovetails (see illustration), their ends concealed on the front by mouldings, introduced about 1680, sometimes nailed for extra strength. By 1690-1700 dovetails lapped (i.e. no longer passed right through to the front) (see illustration). Linings now rebated and glued. Grain of drawers runs front to back.
Single dovetail joint
Front of drawer rebated for sides and bottom, side rebated for runner.
Oak (mostly imported Scandinavian ‘wainscot’ oak). Elm, yew and other local woods used, but few examples survive.
Ebony, ivory, bone and mother-of-pearl for inlaid decoration.
Drawer dovetail joint.
Oak chest of drawers, about 1680.
Alternative drawer supports introduced about 1660 (but not universally adopted) whereby bottom runner fixed to under side of drawer edge ran on bearer fixed at appropriate height. Drawer sides correspondingly thinner, about ‘/2 inch/I cm. Dustboards (i.e. solid shelves between the drawers) often replaced or combined with bearers after 1680.
All moulded and turned decoration glued on. Nailed rough, planked oak backboards. Bun feet dowelled in holes drilled in underside of carcase base (visible inside). Handles attached by split-pin (or tang) method.
Carcase of framed oak chest with panelled ends.
For authenticity, look for signs of genuine wear  especially on drawers and runners and natural movement of the wood with slight warping and shrinkage along the grain.
Underside of feet will be slightly frayed and the drawer fronts will have light indentations from constant knocking of pendant handles.
Applied mitred architectural mouldings on drawer fronts; on the simplest, around the edge only, on many, all over. Split turnings arranged in pairs common on stiles, until about 1680 sometimes combined with inlay of ebony, ivory, bone and moth e r-of- pear, 4. patterns of Spanish/Moorish origin (fashion introduced from Holland).
Handles: Earliest versions have exterior turned wooden knobs, interior iron loop handles. Later, iron (or brass towards 1700) drop handles, pear-shaped with decorative rosettes.
Also, centrally placed decorative escutcheons.
Often stained with oils coloured with various plant substances; then polished with beeswax softened with spirit.
VALUES
In the past, of limited appeal; more recently popular with decorators for ‘bold’ interiors.
Those with inlay and plenty of moulded and split-turned decoration four or five times as much as those with only edge mouldings to drawers. Only the latter still in three figures.
Exterior handles
Pear-drop, Axedrop, Pear-shape drop, about 1700.
Interior handles

CHESTS OF DRAWERS: MAHOGANY
About 1730-1830
Mostly simple, undecorated pieces based on classical proportions and varying more in shape than detail or construction.
Many straight-fronted, others serpentine (often with canted corners) from about 17501800, or bow-fronted, about 1780 onwards. Three or four drawers of graduated depth.
Hepplewhite-style inlaid serpentine chest, about 1800, with ’swept’ feet.
After 1800 a pair of drawers replacing the top long drawer re-introduced. All drawers fitted with interior locks; plain escutcheons flush with surface. Cockbeading on edges until around 1790 when sometimes replaced with light-coloured stringing (occasionally combined with narrow contrasting cross-banding); ebony stringing after 1810.
Straight, lip or thumb-moulded over-hanging tops. Sometimes edge reeded after 1800. Can have pull-out brushing-slide below (actually for writing, not, as once thought, for brushing clothes).
Occasionally cabriole legs around 1750, but much more commonly bracket feet, fashionably plain before 1750, ogee from about 1750-1800. After about 1780 splayed ‘French’ or swept’ feet popular (extension of the sides and front), remaining so until about 1830. A few post-1810 chests have turned legs.
Variations (highly sought after now) include those with a secretaire drawer (see those with the top drawer fitted with dressing accessories. These normally have a number of open and/or lidded compartments and a central lift-up mirror which adjusts on a ratchet system.
Mahogany (imported mostly from the West Indies and South America).
Pine used for all surfaces to be veneered; oak (occasionally cedar) for drawer linings (pine of drawer front concealed by strip of oak). Pine also used for backboards, sometimes replaced towards 1800 by oak or low-grade mahogany.
Country versions can be all oak with mahogany cross-bandings on drawers. Some similar and very fine quality chests made around 17801810 in satinwood.
Mahogany serpentine chest of drawers, about 1760, with bracket feet.
A gentleman’s dressing chest of about 1780.
Dove-tailed carcase (joins concealed by mouldings when solid timber employed). Lapped drawer dovetails, more numerous (about five or six) and finer than previously. Drawer linings thinner, about 1/4 inch/6 mm (though 1/2 inch/ 1 cm still on country versions). Grain of linings front to back until about 1770; thereafter side to side. (NB This is not a golden rule and should not be used as conclusive evidence of age.) Large drawers with a central strengthening batten (or muntin) between two panels from about 1790. Drawer
fronts flat with cockbeading (simple, slightly protruding moulding) rebated around edge.
Top beading may extend over entire top of drawer front (taking place of former oak strip to conceal pine). Drawers running on bearers fixed between front and back cross rails, with or without separate dustboards.
By 1750, the top is a separate item, screwed on from underneath. Sometimes there is an additional solid under-top (formed by top of carcase); alternatively cross rails with large fixed corner brackets (see illustration).
Backboards planked or panelled (but still rough); nailed on. On best quality pieces from about 1780 sometimes fixed with screws.
Bracket feet not structural, but glued to blocks. (These are very prone to damage and have often been replaced.)
Watch out for chests which once formed part of a tallboy. These may be identified by features such as three drawers at the top, a deep carved frieze, and a rebated rather than over-hanging top. (Although some chests were made correctly in this way, with a ‘caddy’ top, the surrounding moulding was much finer than it would
have to be for a converted tallboy.)
Figuring of veneer often most important feature, particularly Cuban ‘curl’ or ‘flame’ mahogany.
Carving rare, occasionally low relief Gothic or chinoiserie patterns around 1750, later quarter columns, reeding or fluting on canted corners.
Handles: All types in brass; attached with bolts and circular nuts (fitted with a special tool) until about 1770; thereafter square.
Some early pieces still with bail handles with pierced backplates, but generally after 1740 simple swan-neck designs common, with two separate circular and variously decorated roses. About 1780, oval or circular stamped (or pressed) brass handles, the loops following lower line of plate.
Brushing slides first with small loops, later small turned brass knobs (about 1765 onwards).
Top, early bail handle with circular backplate; centre, swan-neck handle; below, oval and circular pressed brass handles.
Polish: Oil and/or wax combined with varnish. Great variation according to maker’s preference and variety of timber.
Varnish: Applied in several layers and rubbed down between each application; used to fill grain and produce smooth surface.
Lesser quality Honduras mahogany  which had a duller surface  either rubbed with oil, or polished with mixture of linseed oil and brick dust. Fine Spanish and Cuban mahogany sometimes lightly stained with oil prepared with crushed alkanet root for reddish finish.
Deep glossy shine subsequently retained by frequent domestic dry-rubbing or polishing with beeswax softened with spirit.
French polish: Although it produces a high sheen, it is not long-lasting.
VALUES
All but the simplest in four figures, the very best in five. Considerable sums paid for dressing chests and (rare) matching pairs.

ENGLISH CHESTS OF DRAWERS: VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN
About 1840-1915
Huge numbers of very simple chests were produced, in a wide range of qualities; a few followed fashionable styles in their decoration. After about 1860 they often formed part of a suite -chest, wash-stand, wardrobe and chair.
Early-Victorian bow-fronted chest of drawers, still of Hepplewhite type, but with coarse-grained veneers and large wooden knob handles.
Usually two short drawers above three long, but can be taller, with five or six drawers. Bow-fronted were most popular until about 1860, thereafter straight fronts were more common. The majority have turned bun feet-longer and less spherical than previously -otherwise bracket feet, or a continuous plinth.
Overhanging top; curved or flat-edged when veneered, moulded when solid (usually thumb or ovolo). Drawers flush with carcase, with almost flat cockbeading around edge. Until end of century all drawers fitted with locks (usually Bramah after 1846).
Around 1800, chests were sometimes combined with wash-stand or with dressing-table.
Predominantly mahogany followed by walnut; occasionally satinwood, rosewood, maple, ash, oak. Sometimes solid, mostly veneered on pine or, on better quality pieces, cheap Honduras mahogany. Pine when stained to resemble other woods, or when painted.
Use of machinery widespread by this period, seen in even saw marks on timber, very thin veneers (about 1/16th inch/1.5 mm) and regularly shaped and cut dovetails. On best pieces dovetails are fine, almost pointed.
Base of larger drawers comprises two panels with central batten (or muntin) supported at sides on runners and held down with narrow quarter mouldings (this feature replaced rebates around 1830). On best quality examples, back of drawer is sometimes fixed to base with three countersunk screws in gouged-out slots. Drawer linings are occasionally lightly polished.
Knobs fixed in V2 inch/cm diameter holes with screw-turned dowel, or shank glued into threaded hole. Sometimes just dowelled and glued, others fixed with metal bolt.
Many very poor quality chests were mass-produced in East End of London using cheap, knotty, improperly seasoned woods and poor quality glues, resulting in lifting of veneers.
Some restrained carving or inlay when in a specific style, otherwise plain, relying only on figured (often burr) veneers.
Handles: Large turned wood knobs from about 1825; white porcelain knobs on painted chests from about 1870. Brass handles re-introduced where style demanded.
French polish; sometimes stained to produce a reddish colour beforehand. Stain and varnish used to simulate quality timbers, particularly on cheap servants’ furniture. Paint popular towards 1900: typically white or green.
VALUES
Prices very variable, closely related to quality of construction and choice of veneers. The majority still in three figures, the best in four. Pine still the cheapest buy.

English Bachelor Chests and Chests of Drawers

George I period walnut bachelor chest of drawers. Note evolution of a slightly later period in chests of drawers in the flat veneered carcase fronts and the drawers with cock-beading around the edges. Herring-bone or feather inlay in the drawers gives a cross banded effect. Size approx. 2′ 3″ wide by 2′ 8″ high by 11 0″ deep. Drawers oak lined.
Note the very fine selection of walnut figure shown in this example.
Price Range: $1,000-$1,500 Value points: See section notes

A walnut bachelor’s chest of c. 1725 - 30, the drawers having cock beading and herring-bone or ‘feather’ inlay. The top is cross-banded and again has a herring-bone inlay between central panel of veneer and cross banding.
Price Range: $1,000-$1,500 Value points: See section notes

An early mahogany bachelor’s chest; the design following quite plainly the earlier walnut type. The folding top is simple and solid, without an edge moulding.
Price Range: $450-$550
In this case the fading and figure of the mahogany are particularly remarkable, and would constitute  points.