Antique Chest Of Drawers

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.

CHESTS: DRAWING-ROOM COMMODES
About 1750-1800
Fine quality drawing-room commode in French style, about 17 75.
Valuable and prestigious objects made for the main rooms of fine houses. Probably seldom used in a practical sense; principally valued for their fine decoration. Usually made in pairs to stand at either end of a room or against the window piers. Gradually replaced by simpler cabinets during the Regency period.
Differently proportioned to bedroom chests; usually longer in relation to height.
Two, three or four drawers, sometimes en-, closed by doors (occasionally interior shelves instead). At first in French rococo style, or bomb shape (i.e. with swelling serpentine sides), keeled corners and splayed feet
with ormolu (gilt bronze) or gilt brass mounts with matched handles. Marble or wooden tops.
Ormolu, mounted on keeled front edges of serpentine commode.
Ousted from fashion about 1770 by straight-sided semi-circular shape with straight, tapering, later turned, legs.
Fine quality woods, particularly mahogany, satinwood. Tulipwood, kingwood, harewood (green-stained sycamore), chestnut, fruit and many other woods used for marquetry and inlay. Oak when japanned. Oak and pine for carcases. Marble or scagliola (a plaster-based material imitating rare marbles) was sometimes used for tops. The latter can be plain or patterned.
Generally standard methods were employed. Mostly veneered. Bombe sections coopered or laminated beneath veneer. On mid-century examples dustboards between drawers (not a feature of French commodes until late in the century).
Many have variously arranged mahogany veneers; often geometric patterns. Before about 1770 the finest have marquetry of floral patterns, musical instruments, trophies, birds. Neo-classical inlay from about 1770
onwards of urns, shells, husks, bell flowers, acanthus leaves, sometimes shaded with scorching or overlaid with pen and ink. Oval and fan shapes were popular.
Painted decoration (not all over) included ovals containing classical figures, borders of flowers, ribbons, garlands etc. Occasionally low-relief Wedgwood plaques incorporated, with gilt brass framing.
Chinoiserie decoration (especially for bedrooms and dressing-rooms) sometimes japanned, occasionally partly composed of genuine Oriental lacquer taken from broken-up imported screens.
Polish, japanning, paint.
VALUES
A specialist market, prices in four, five or even six figures. Not objects to be purchased without expert advice.