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

AMERICAN CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS
About 1600-1700
The box-like chest, serving as a crate or travelling trunk, is one of the few pieces of furniture brought with them by the Pilgrim Fathers. By 1660, panelled chests were being made with drawers below the box; their number increased until they occupied the whole space, and the top was no longer hinged. The chest became the chest of drawers.
Chests and chests of drawers of 17thC type continued to be made in country districts well into the 18thC as indicated by the overlapping dates of this section and the next.
Before 1675, angular forms decorated in Anglo-Dutch Renaissance and baroque styles. New England types with regional differences then appear (see DECORATION below). Known makers include: W. Searle and T. Dennis of Ipswich, J. Allis and S. Belding of Hadley and Hatfield, Massachusetts; P. Blin of Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Oak, tulipwood; wide pine boards for lids of chests, linings of chests of drawers.
Boarded (or plank)chest: Simple type, the boards nailed to edges of ends.
Panelled chest: Panels bevelled at edges and inserted into rebates (rabbets, rabbits) in frame joined by mortise-and-tenon joints
Above, boarded construction, splits in wood.
secured with pegs. Lid not panelled  solid board(s) moulded on edge.
Panelled chest of drawers: Ends as for chests, above. Top fixed with nails, pegs or blocks glued inside. Back boarded or panelled.
Drawers assembled with nails and/or crude dovetails, grooves cut in sides to run on runners nailed to frame.
Drawer with grooves for side runners.
Chests, before 1675: Flat carving of foliage. Regional differences then develop.
After 1675, Hadley, Massachusetts: Flat carving of tulips, palm leaves, covering whole of front  frame as well as panels.
Hartford    County, Connecticut: Carved sunflowers and applied split turnings.
Chests of drawers, from 1675: Essex County, Massachusetts: Drawer-fronts moulded on edges and divided into small areas by split turnings, also applied to stiles (see SEATS 1690 to 1725, p. 294).
A painted and ebonised and pine chest about 1675-1710.
Handles: Iron, or wood painted black. Wood handles turned or shaped to an oval and set at an angle (’turtle-back’).
Painting and staining in black, red and blue with local or imported pigments used at first mainly to decorate carving but, in some districts, replacing it by 1700. Split turnings painted black to imitate ebony.
American chests and chests of drawers pre-1740 are rare and expensive, but some have made a trip to the UK and got lost. A 17thC English oak chest was seldom carved all over its front like the Hadley type; neither did it have a pine top. Such features might be treated by English buyers as evidence of later carving and a replaced top. They might be right, but you could get lucky.
Below panelled construction: panel moues freely ill rebate.

FRENCH AND ITALIAN CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1600-1675
Italian Renaissance cassone.
Lidded chests continued to be the main storage pieces until about 1650. From then on, they were largely replaced with armoires (see CUPBOARDS, p. 210) and chests of drawers, but in many rural areas the lidded chest survived as a traditional type. By about 1620 baroque (see GUIDE TO PERIODS AND STYLES, P. 192) had begun to replace Renaissance in Italy as the dominating style for much furniture, and soon travelled north. Many Italian cassoni are of the sarcophagus type (see CHESTS 1450-1600, opposite) with curved carcases that suited the baroque style of decoration, but 17thC chests of drawers were angular.
17thC carved Italian cassone.
Usually, a timber near to hand (see CHESTS before 1450, opposite) as the principal wood and sometimes throughout (e.g. oak in the Netherlands), sometimes with a secondary one (e.g. chestnut in France) for drawer-linings (sides, back and bottom). Iron.
Chests (wood): Framed, housed or built up. Germany made an iron type now popularly known as ‘armada’, with a large escutcheon around a false keyhole, the true one being concealed at the centre of the lid, under which a steel mechanism operates as many as 12 spring-loaded bolts.
Above, early-17thC German steel ‘Armada” chest, locking at 14 points.
Chests of drawers: Panelled ends joined by mortise-and-tenon joints to horizontal rails between the drawers at the front, panelled or boarded back. Drawers usually full width, but often moulded to appear narrower. In the Netherlands, lower ones often enclosed by doors. Drawers made with lap joints or, at best, two or three coarse dovetails.
Drawer-sides grooved to slide on side runners fitted inside ends. Feet are either continuations of stiles (corner posts) or separately turned on the lathe to ball or bun shapes, and dowelled into the base.
Drawer moulded to reduce width.
EUROPEAN DECORATION
Chests: Early-17thC Italian cassoni often have one large front panel with figures, scrolls or coats-of-arms carved in bold relief. In Denmark, chests of boarded construction were carved with love tokens (e.g. twin hearts) or with repeat patterns simulating the strapping on German iron chests (see the information on CONSTRUCTION above).
Chests of drawers: In Italy, drawer-fronts were sometimes decorated with certosina –inlay into the solid with small pieces of bone to form geometric patterns. In the Netherlands, floral patterns were inlaid with bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl. In most regions, mouldings were applied to drawer-fronts in geometric patterns – an Islamic style that spread from Moorish Spain. Patterns may be different on each drawer-front. Some mouldings and small areas veneered in ebony, imported from the East Indies; thus, the
ability to veneer led to the French calling cabinetmakers ebenistes, to distinguish them from the menuisiers (joiners) who worked with solid wood.
Handles: Turned wood, iron rings or brass drops. Italian wood knobs sometimes carved with heads of humans or animals.
handles: below right, wooden knob, turned and hatched; below left iron ring.
If grain was meant to be seen, varnish made of resin dissolved in linseed or poppy oil was used until about 1660, when lac in spirits of wine became popular. Country-made pieces oiled and polished with beeswax dissolved in turpentine. In Spain, Italy, the Alpine countries and Scandinavia, pine was painted in colours, with scrolls, foliage, flowers or figures, or left in natural state and scrubbed.
Best buy for those with space to fill: large Dutch chests of drawers, partly enclosed by doors; high quality, oak throughout. There are 19thC copies around, but the quality is often even better than the 17thC originals.
Dutch chest of drawers, mid-17thC.
Small Italian and Spanish chests of drawers in painted pine are often crudely constructed and later in date than they appear – sometimes so much later that they are best avoided unless backed by a worthwhile guarantee.

FRENCH CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS About 1800-1850
German commode in French Empire style, about 1810.
The lidded chest continues to be made as a purely utilitarian article – e.g. blanket chest, tool chest; and as a decorative one also in some areas – Scandinavia, Russia, Poland and the Baltic countries. Chests made by peasant communities in Catalonia in the mid-19thC can easily be mistaken for 17thC examples.
French mahogany commode, the drawers flanked by monopodia, about 1820.
The grand, commode-type chest of drawers survives as a salon piece in French Empire style, current throughout most of Europe, 1800-15; but from then until about 1850 (excepting revivals of Louis XV) is made in plainer, more functional fashion and banished to the bourgeois bedroom, where it is seen at its best in the Biedermeier style, originating in Austria about 1815, spreading to Germany, Scandinavia and Russia, so carrying on a sober version of Empire neo-classicism until
about 1830, after which historic revivals (Gothic, rococo, Renaissance, baroque) begin to intrude.
Mahogany popular at first but British blockade of Napoleonic Europe creates scarcity, thus stimulating use of native timbers – cherry, birch, pine, walnut, fruitwoods, poplar, ash (but not oak) – with growing preference for pale woods.
Empire-Biedermeier: Usually rectilinear, but semi-bombe shape used by Danhauser, Vienna, about 1815. In popular type, top drawer projects as if resting on a pair of cylindrical columns. A tall, slim type (called semainier in France) has seven drawers – one for each day of the week. Although guilds had been disbanded in France, Germany and Aus-Column capped by decorative metal ringmouldings.
trig, the strict training of apprentices continued as before, resulting in a high degree of craftsmanship, aided from the 1820s by English inventions, e.g. glass paper, improved saws and planes. New machines for planing, drilling, cutting mortises and producing veneers in large sheets were introduced during the Biedermeier period, and large factories set up (notably Danhauser’s, Vienna); but methods of assembly with traditional mortise-and-tenon and dovetail joints remained much the same as before. They are always concealed, the Biedermeier ideal being a flush surface, sometimes broken by a recessed arch set at the centre of the drawers, the rails also sometimes hidden by overlapping drawer-fronts.
Recessed arch, sometimes found on Biedermeier furniture.
Empire: Imperial symbols as gilt bronze mounts, imitated in brass for cheaper products. Marquetry in dark woods on light ground revived after restoration of French monarchy in 1815.
Biedermier chest of drawers, about 1825.
Biedermeier: Marquetry and mounts similar to Empire; ivory or bone escutcheon plates around keyhole — perhaps as an aid to finding key; it is often the only thing to grip, handles being sacrificed to Biedermeier passion for flatness.
French polishing introduced in France during Empire period. Austria and Germany used stains for first time during Biedermeier period, especially to simulate ebony (for bandings) and mahogany. Even then, walnut never stained. Grain of veneer on drawer-fronts runs vertically. Top edges of drawers masked with thick veneer except in Sweden, where pine foundation is usually visible; this also applies to many 18thC Swedish bureaux.
Chests of drawers of this period in pale woods not very fashionable but still not over-expensive. Darker woods, especially mahogany (the most expensive when new), now wanted rather less — excellent value.
MOCK-BIEDERMEIER
Much pretentious, poorly made, post-1850 Germanic furniture is now sold under the fashionable Biedermeier label. The best was made before 1830, is of high quality and severe-looking. Anything made after the 1840 revolution is unlikely to be true to the Biedermeier ideal of beauty — best expressed, someone once said, in the music of Schubert.
Continous vertical grain of veneer.
About 1850-1890
19thC Swiss traditional dough trough.
Contemporary chests of drawers commodious but not very elegant. Commodes in 18thC rococo style, but with original touches, produced by Leistler of Vienna, Linke and Zwiener of Paris, followed by revival of Louis XVI style. Copies of originals by Carlin (18thC ebeniste) incorporating oriental lacquer panels, made by H. Dasson but signed with own name.
In Holland, bombe commodes reproduced and marquetry flowers and birds added to plain old ones.
Lidded chests: French Provincial or Swiss dough trough (male or petrin) – a tapered chest resting on a stand, with Louis XIII-type turned legs and, very often, with Louis XV-type cabriole feet.
Swiss mahogany chest of drawers, about 1865.
Contemporary type: Mahogany, oak, walnut veneer.
Reproductions: Wide variety of exotic woods.
Rural types: Local timbers.
Traditional methods employed with great attention to detail on fine quality reproductions. Some contemporary types hand-made, many machine-assisted.
Veneered types: Marquetry, ormolu mounts (often poor).
Rural types (solid): Carving.
Veneered types: French polished.
Rural types: oiled and waxed or left in natural state. Painting of figures and flowers in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Good quality 19thC copies of Louis XV and Louis XVI commodes now sell at fairly high prices, especially if signed by well-known maker, e.g. Linke or Dasson. Bulky, contemporary types often well-made, inexpensive but not easy to re-sell when they have outlived their usefulness.
19thC COPIES
The interiors of 19thC copies are generally better finished than those of the originals. Signatures, when present, are more conspicuous, and some (Linke’s especially) have been forged in recent years.

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.

EUROPEAN CHESTS About 1450 to 1600
Late-15thC french chest decorated with tracery and other Gothic Ornaments.
Late Gothic persists in Northern Europe, but is gradually influenced by the Renaissance in Italy where, from the late 15thC, classical Roman shapes and decorative features are reintroduced.
Oak in France, northern Germany, the Netherlands; pine and fir in Scandinavia; walnut, cypress in Italy; walnut, oak, chestnut in Spain; various fruitwoods where grown. Gesso (plaster hardened with size). Iron hinges, carrying handles, locks and keys.
Panelled: Framework mortised and tenoned, secured with pegs, rebated to receive panels bevelled at edges and fitted to allow play for unequal expansion and contraction, thus minimizing warping and splitting. Lids either panelled or flush planks nailed to cross-members.
Housed: Lighter versions of this method
(see CHESTS, p. 235) continued to be used in many areas.
Curvilinear: From late 15thC, some Italian cassoni (chests), imitating Roman sarcophagi, were built up sectionally and shaped to curved outline, leaving joins to be covered with gesso.
Late Gothic, Northern Europe: Panels carved with pointed arches, tracery, animals, foliage, linenfold (see BEDS, P. 198).
Renaissance: In Italy, some carving, more painting in tempera and gilding on gesso ground of biblical subjects and scenes from classical mythology. Gifted artists employed on decoration of marriage chests, often made in pairs from about 1470, when intarsia – inlay depicting architecture and still life groups –was also used. In the 16thC, intarsia was practised in the Netherlands (Antwerp) and Germany (Augsburg and Nuremberg). In Spain and Portugal – both immensely rich in the 16thC – chests were lavishly decorated with
carving and inlaid abstract patterns derived from Moorish sources. France and Burgundy adopted an Italianate style in the early 16thC (Franсois I). Mannerist (late Renaissance) elements, grotesque masks, elongated figures and ‘Romayne work’ – heads of men and women in carved medallions – were popular.
Painting on gesso and directly on to wood. Oiling, waxing, varnishing; much woodwork in Northern Europe left in natural state.
Many 16thC chests still survive and can be bought at prices that are modest in comparison with those of later pieces. Beware of 19thC fakes of painted Italian cassoni.
Panel rebated into mortised and tenoned frame.

Antique French Gothic CHESTS
Before about 1450
The lidded, box-like chest was one of the earliest articles of furniture, made over a very long period and in many parts of the world.
French oak chest with chip-carved roundels, of a type common in the 15thC.
The first chests were hollowed out logs, but more advanced types survive from the 13thC, when the Romanesque style was being overtaken by the Gothic in Northern Europe, while Italy was more influenced by Byzantine styles of the Eatsern Roman Empire (see GUIDE TO PERIODS AND STYLES P. 189).
Dug-out chest.
Local timbers, e.g. walnut in Italy, Spain, southern Germany; oak in France and the Netherlands. Iron hinges, straps, scrolls.
Dug-out: Log hollowed out with adze (axe with horizontal cutting edge). The lid was formed from a slice of tree-trunk (thus ,travelling trunk’).
Boarded (or ‘plank’): Five boards — front, back, two ends bottom — nailed together, with sixth as lid.
Housed (or clamped): Front, back and ends tenoned into mortises cut in uprights; ends sometimes strengthened with framing. Lid often pivoted with wooden pins in sockets without recourse to metal hinges.
Romanesque: Rounded arches on stumpy columns carved in rows across front, and pierced through feet.
Early Gothic: Chip-carved roundels on fronts, the placing of the roundels symmetrical but the patterns within them varying in random fashion. In France, birthplace of the style, carved figures of saints, knights in armour, pointed arches, or elaborately scrolled ironwork used both to strengthen and decorate.
Often painted in vivid colours originally but little trace of them remains. Present colour and appearance depend on environment and treatment over last 500 years, and may be dark, light or something in between.
Most chests earlier than 1450 are now in churches or museums, and when decorated examples in reasonable condition appear on the open market, they are expensive.
Roundels
Plain boarded chests were made well into the 17thC, and some have been chip-carved in recent times in the Gothic style. In genuine examples, the roundels were marked out with a compass, and faint traces of the incised circles can often be discerned. These are not usually apparent in chests carved later.
Housed construction for chest.

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 OF DRAWERS: VENEERED
About 1680-1740 Walnut
The art of veneering was introduced to England by Dutch and Flemish craftsmen working in and around London during the Restoration period.
Generally three long drawers below two short. Most with over-hanging top, formed at first by a cornice, later ovolo or thumb moulding. Later pieces occasionally with caddy top (i.e. inset with narrow moulding all
round). Tops often quarter-veneered (i.e. veneer laid in four identical pieces) until about 1710; thereafter one piece, usually with broad, cross-banded border.
Bun feet with simple plinth moulding until about 1710, then bracket. (Many have had their bun feet replaced with brackets at a later date. The original holes will still be visible in the carcase base.)
Drawer fronts flat, fashions for edge decoration and finish varying, some running concurrently:
Right, simple cross-banding, late 17thC; centre, feather cross-banding, early 18thC and below, allover veneer with inset stringing, late 17th C.
About 1680-1710: Simple cross-banding. About 1690-1720: Feather (or herringbone) cross-banding.
About 1690-1710: All-over veneer with inset stringing.
With these types, front of carcase between and around the drawers has a single or double half-round moulding.
About 1710-1720: Rebated ovolo lip moulding extending beyond edge of drawer, concealing gap between drawers and carcase.
About 1730 until late-19thC: Cockbead (i.e. a narrow and slightly projecting moulding rebated around drawer but not extending beyond edge).
With these types, drawer dividers plain.
THE BACHELOR’S CHEST
A popular variant, dating from about 17101740, and mostly made in walnut, though occasionally mahogany, is the bachelor’s chest. This is much shallower than average and characterized by a folding top, hinging down from the front and supported on lopers to provide a writing slide. Unusual and desirable, so fakes are not uncommon. Check that the drawer runners stop short of the back; if not, it is almost certainly made up from a cut-down standard chest.
A, plain bracket foot, late 18thC; B, William and    A turnip foot, early 18thC. Mary ban foot; C, flattened bun foot, late 17thC  veneered chest of about 1690.
Veneer: Predominantly walnut; occasionally mahogany after about 1720. Also yew, mulberry, sycamore and many other burr and figured woods. Laburnum, lignum vitae, king-wood, olive-wood and others used for
oyster veneers (i.e. veneers cut across the grain from small branches). Boxwood, holly, ebony, and other woods for inlay and marquetry, also occasionally bone.
Carcases: Pine for all veneered surfaces; oak for drawer linings (except the drawer front. On these a strip of oak often concealed the pine top edge). Oak or deal carcase when japanned.
Hand-cut veneers, at first thick (about 1/8 inch/3 mm), cut across the grain. Early through-dovetails on all parts originally covered by veneer; lapped dovetails from about 1690-1700. Sides of drawers narrower.
drawer construction, veneer hiding dovetails
Drawer linings rebated and glued into sides. Grain running front to back except on very large drawers, when side to side. Drawers with runners on underside, supported on bearers, often with solid dustboards too.
Drop handles attached by split-pin (or tang) method. Plate handles with bolts and circular nuts (fixed with special too]). Pine, sometimes oak, backboards nailed on.
REPLACED HANDLES
It has been estimated that approximately 90 per cent of all chests of drawers have had their handles replaced at least once. This will be obvious from the number and position of holes visible on the inside and probably
from filled holes on the outside. On veneered drawers, if the holes on front and back do not tie up, the piece has certainly been re-veneered, or even veneered for the first time (see below).
Principally geometric patterns of figured veneer. Inlay (often as stringing or circles or ovals), cross-banding. Much use of symmetrically arranged burr and oyster veneers.
Floral marquetry, about 1690-1720; usually contained within panels, not all over as on contemporary Dutch chests.
After about 1680 occasionally chinoiserie japanned decoration on black ground (survivals rare).
Handles: Iron (towards 1700 brass) drop handles. C-scroll bail handles with backplates from about 1700. Early backplates solid and shaped, with bevelled edges; sometimes incised. From about 1720 more often
pierced.
Largish centrally placed decorative lock escutcheons.
Varnish (diluted glue applied in layers and sanded down between applications) to fill the grain and produce a smooth surface, followed by wax polish.
Unfortunately many ‘antiques’ were French polished by the Victorians and have subsequently had to be re-polished, thereby losing their original finish and the mellow colours produced by patination.
VALUES
Prices invariably in four figures, many in five. Being particularly valuable  and rarely in totally original condition  false versions are not uncommon. Watch out for all-oak or all-pine construction. In both cases the chest probably started life without veneer; the first in the 17thC or 18thC, the latter in the late 19thC (although it could possibly be an imported Continental version). Look carefully at the construction of the drawers.
Carcase construction revealed.