Antique Chest Of Drawers

English Oak, Walnut and Mahogany Chests of Drawers

William and Mary period - c. 1690 - Walnut chest of drawers on bun feet, (not original). Inlaid with boxwood stringing lines in geometric pattern on top. Possibly placed originally on a low stand. Note the deep top edge moulding is more towards Queen Anne type but half-round or ‘D’ moulding on carcase fronts remains. Fairly straight-grained veneer but sides veneered and cross banded.
Price Range: 150-300
Value points: See section notes

Walnut chest of drawers of later period, c.1740-50, country made. The drawers are pine lined. The thin top edge moulding gives an example of later lack of boldness and the original double ‘D’ moulding around the drawers has been replaced by a single ‘D’ which is a little too clumsy at this width. Drawer fronts veneered in plain straight-grained walnut with little figure. Cross banding of drawers is ‘half-herring-bone’ , i.e. at 45 degrees which is typical of country pieces which emulated an earlier period. The top quartered and
cross banded in plain walnut. This piece has added interest in that the sides, instead of being plain pine or oak are, in fact, solid walnut (- factor).
Price Range: $75-$120
Value points: Treatment of sides i. e. Veneered  Solid Walnut
There are still plenty of these chests about but beware many ‘improved’ or recently veneered country pieces.

Mid-18th century mahogany chest of drawers on bracket feet. A thin thumb-nail top edge moulding round the top is echoed by the ovolo, lip moulding around the drawers. A very typical example of mid-18th century chests of fair quality and which are also found in oak and pine with occasional country variations.
Price Range: $50-$70
Value points: Figure of wood
(Faded mahogany is popular)

Mid-18th century mahogany chest of drawers. c. 1760. The four graduated drawers are cock beaded around the edges. The deep ovolo top edge moulding is repeated in the moulding around the base, above the shaped bracket feet. The figure of the wood is dark and rich.
Price Range: $60-$90
Value points: Size width. 3′ 0″ or under  2′ 9″ or under  2′ 6″ or under -
Figure of wood

A mid-18th century chest of drawers of high quality; of a design normally found in mahogany. Bold thumb-nail top edge moulding; brushing slide; chamfered and reeded sides; a fine graduation of drawer sizes; all indicate the quality of the piece. The bracket feet are boldly shaped and the plain ’swan neck’ handles are contemporary. Note the replacement of escutcheon plates by thethinthreaded key hole fittings.
Price Range: $100-$150 Value points: Brushing slide

A George III mahogany serpentine chest of drawers of a design frequently called Chippendale. Note the brushing slide and blind fretted edges. The decorated handles are of a high quality, matching the piece. The mahogany is of a fine faded colour and the mouldings and bracket feet are boldly executed. These pieces are of a heavier and bulkier character and the general rule of small size equating with higher value does not necessarily apply in this case.
Price Range: $400-$650
Value points: Brushing slide
Bold sweep of front elevation Fretted edges
Pronounced Mouldings

A late 18th century mahogany bow fronted chest of drawers with brushing slide. The four graduated drawers are cock beaded. The splayed feet have a nicely shaped apron between them. The top is cross banded with satinwood, an unusual feature of quality.
Price Range: $185-$225
Value points: Cross banding of top

A late 18th century bow fronted mahogany chest of three drawers with brushing slide, splayed feet and attractive apron.
Price range: $120 to $160
Value points: Low proportions  Brushing slide

A late 18th century serpentine fronted mahogany low chest of drawers on splayed feet. There is an inlaid line of boxwood stringing around the top edge.
Price Range: $75-$120
Value points: Size: since this is a low chest, the width is not as critical a factor in the price as with normal chests, but still affects value.

Mahogany chest on chest of drawers, or tallboy with brushing slide. The top half has a dentil frieze under the cornice and the sides are chamfered and reeded. The bracket feet are of serpentine shape. The swan-neck handles are original.
Price Range: $80-$100
Value points: Size is not such an important factor, since most pieces are fairly large and for this reason not expensive. A height of 6′ 6″ or under would however add to value.

A late 18th century mahogany bow fronted chest of drawers. This piece is of lower proportions, with deep drawers, and being thus somewhat smaller than the previous example, is in a slightly higher price range. The cock beading around the drawer edges can be seen clearly.
Price Range: $60-$85
Value points: See section notes

A late 18th century bow fronted mahogany chest of drawers. With ring handles and splayed feet.
Price Range: $45-$75
Value points: Size: Height 3′ 6″ or under

A Regency period mahogany bow-fronted chest of drawers with an applied solid twist or rope decoration down the front edge corners. The top and bottom edges are reeded. The turned legs give a hint of the rather bulbous turned examples that followed in the Victorian period. Although rather tall, the proportion of such chests is still good, particularly bearing in mind the larger houses which they were designed for.
Price Range: $5O- E1OO
Value points: Quality of wood used i. e. figure and decorative effect

Victorian mahogany bow-fronted chest of drawers on turned feet. The drawers have a heavy cock bead and the turned wooden knobs are also mahogany. The size of such chests tends to be large and cumbersome; the drawers less in number and hence deeper than earlier types.
Price Range: $10$-20
Value points: Satinwood …. Figured veneers

A Victorian chest of drawers of c. 1860, Usually made in mahogany. The ponderous moulded front of the top drawer throws the piece off balance and the bottom, with a solid flat base, raised slightly by turned knob feet, cannot hope to compensate in design. The turned wooden knobs are dear to the Victorian hearts and were frequently used as a replacement on chests of earlier periods in order to ‘improve’ them or bring them up to date - a vile practice which has ruined many fine 18th century pieces. Due to the fact that
they are extremely solidly made, regrettably large numbers of these chests have survived.
Price Range: $7-$I2
Value points: None

A very fine William and Mary period - c. 1690 - chest of drawers in oyster veneer, decorated with stringing lines in geometrical patterns. The wood used is laburnum, which gives a rich dark colour with a. hard, close grain. Even the half-round carcase edge mouldings around the drawers, the cross banding and the top and bottom edge ogee mouldings are in this wood, but the bun feet are probably walnut. Note that the sides are also decorated in the same manner as the top.
Price Range: 500-750
Value points: Quality of decoration  Decorated sides

William and Mary period - c. 1690 - chest of drawers veneered in laburnum oyster pieces. Possibly Anglo-Dutch due to low positioning of locks and the thin drawer linings. Top veneered in concentric circles of oysters. Sides also veneered in oysters with wide cross banding. Width 3ft. Note heavy top edge moulding similar to thumbnail and half-round or ‘D’ moulding on carcase front around drawers. Cross banding of drawers, top and sides in laburnum also. Handles not original.
Price Range: 250-450
Value points: Colour, patination and oyster pattern

A very fine William and Mary period - c. 1690 - chest of drawers in oyster veneer, decorated with stringing lines in geometrical patterns. The wood used is laburnum, which gives a rich dark colour with a hard, close grain. Even the half-round carcase edge mouldings around the drawers, the cross banding and the top and bottom edge ogee-mouldings are in this wood, but the bun feet are probably walnut. Note that the sides are also decorated in the same manner as the top.
Price Range: 500-750
Value points: Quality of decoration  Decorated sides

Early walnut chest of drawers - c. 1700 - inlaid with stringing lines in boxwood. Note heavy thumb-nail moulding around edge of top echoed in the moulding around the base above the bracket feet, possibly originally on low stand as feet are not original. The grain on original veneered feet is usually vertical, both to follow the direc - tion of the grain on the drawer front and because if it were cross -ways the veneer would chip off more easily. Half-round or ‘D’ moulding on carcase fronts around drawers. All mouldings cross-grained and in short lengths.
Price Range: $150-$350
Value points: Quality of decoration

Late 17th century - c. 1680 - oak chest of drawers often misnamed Jacobean. Note the simple mouldings and fielded panelling of the drawers. The chest is made in two halves for ease of transportation. The bun feet are typical of the William and Mary period. The drawers run on side rails on a rebate in the thick drawer linings, which are normally in oak.
The thin top has a thumb-nail lip edge moulding. The handles are original.*
Price Range: $80-$120
Value points: Veneered panels in other woods  Intricacy of mitred drawer fronts  Applied split baluster decoration  Decorated inlay
Original feet
*Note the deep second drawers.

A late 17th century oak chest of drawers similar to the previous example. The mitred drawer fronts are more decorated and the balance of the piece is lighter. There is a convex moulding under the top and the carcase frame continues down to form the feet; a feature of an earlier period. The knobs are not original.
Price Range: $75-$110
Value points: Veneered panels and inlaid decoration

CHESTS ON CHESTS
The grandest form of walnut chest on chest, incorporating an inlaid ’sunburst’ in the bottom drawer, brushing slide and canted corners on the top half, the corners being fluted with cross-grained moulding. The drawers are veneered with finely matched walnut and have herring-bone cross-banding and a walnut cock-bead. c.1715
A plainer walnut chest on chest with inlaid herring-bone to cross-banded drawers edged with ovolo lip moulding to cover the carcase edges. No slide, canted corners or sunburst.
A fine quality mahogany chest on chest with cross-banded drawers with cockbeading, mounted on serpentine bracket feet. The top chest features pillared fluted corners with brass mounts and a blind fret beneath the dentil top moulding and the pillars.
A good quality mahogany chest on chest on serpentine bracket feet, with reeded canted corners to the top chest.
c.1770  A plain mahogany chest on chest with no decoration, on bracket feet. Also made in oak.
A good quality mahogany chest on chest with reeded canted corners, key pattern to the top moulding and an inlaid ebony and boxwood stringing line round each drawer. Often found in oak as well as mahogany.
A Chippendale mahogany chest on chest, of high quality, with broken pediment, dentil decorated cornice, brushing slide and serpentine bracket feet.
A bow-fronted chest on chest with dentil top moulding and splay feet.
An interesting bow-fronted chest on chest on Hepplewhite-style splayed feet. The top shows the black inlaid stringing lines popularised by the revival of classical design. Note, too, how the gradation of the drawers produces a better effect than 363 which is altogether an inferior piece.
1800-1820 Commode
A semi-circular commode on tapering legs.
satinwood inlaid two door
A Hepplewhite serpentine-front commode chest of drawers in mahogany. Fitted with slide. The fin-lire projections on the sides and the shaped apron beneath together with shape of moulding all point towards the work of this designer. An elegant piece with fine patination and original handles.
A mahogany serpentine -front chest on heavily carved cabriole legs. The design is similar to Chippendale but shows later influences in the acanthus leaf carving and scrolling of the legs. It is a type often reproduced.
An interesting design of Thomas Hope influence, showing Egyptian heads and ebony stringing lines.
A mahogany commode on spirally fluted tapering legs. A more classical design not unlike those illustrated by Sheraton.

CHESTS  bow-fronted mahogany, 1780 onwards
A late eighteenth century example with brushing slide showing fine use of the mahogany grain to provide the maximum decorative effect. Note the bottom moulding which soon disappeared, and the use of needed top moulding which started with Sheraton but came into wide use in Regency times. The splayed feet add to the value. Good original handles.
c. 1790Splay feet with apron, good ripple effect on the mahogany and brushing slide  all point towards Georgian quality. Only the flat D-shaped top moulding, which suggests a move towards the Victorian, and the lack of crossbanding detract.
c. 1820sA bow-fronted chest with slide, splayed feet and shaped apron. The top is cross-banded in satinwood. A fine quality piece.
1780-1800A small chest cross-banded with satinwood on the top and showing the flat fronted form of bow which appeared in Sheraton’s design book in 1793. (In another variant of the same form pillars are found superimposed on the ends.) Quite an elegant piece helped by the existence of a brushing slide but odd and untidy in that it lacks cockbeading to the edges of the drawers. Notice that all four examples on this page have long top drawers instead of two short ones.
1795-1810n But imagine satinwood crossbanding, original shells  writing
drawer, good polish etc.,
c. 1830s
A low bow-fronted chest with splayed feet, veneered in feather figured mahogany. Not a favourite type because it is too squat and out of proportion, almost as though a bottom drawer has been taken out.
A fairly plain mahogany veneered example. With splay feet at both front and back. It has a flat top moulding and Bramah locks. Quite elegant in a modest way.
A little wooden-knobbed chest on particularly Victorian bun feet with an almost flat moulding, not very exciting perhaps but it has two virtues  it is small and the maker made an effort with the grain of the wood. It will probably end up with a reeded moulding, apron and splay feet and oval brass handles. Why oval Because the knob holes are too near the drawer ends to put on round or octagonal; oval shaped handles will make them appear better spaced. Could end up looking better than 379.
A feather figured veneered mahogany chest on turned feet of good quality throughout and with good patination. With brass replacements handles could look very handsome, despite its height which traditionally counted against it.
c. 1850-1870

CHESTS  straight-fronted
An early mahogany chest. The top moulding is the simple half-round which together with the bold high bracket feet can be found on later walnut examples. Fine cut-out handles which could be original. With good patination a fine piece. c.1740-1750
A good quality mahogany chest with fine faded patination. Signs of quality are the recessed top moulding (made up of the Chippendale moulding with an additional curve below), the chamfered corners with a vertical bead decoration and stop end at the bottom, and the finely moulded ogee feet. c. 1760
Typical of a group of chests with Chippendale moulding, brushing slides and ogee feet of good quality
dense grained (though the photograph exaggerates it)    385 The recessed quarter-round fluted pillar, the use of mahogany. The best ones have reeded canted corners which    white stringing lines and strange little decorations at the help the price. Size of course is critical to price.    bottom suggest late eighteenth century provincial workmanship. c.1750-1760
A plain mahogany chest on typical mid-century bracket feet with original swan-neck handles; the drawers have cockbeading. A design which was used for oak and proportions.
Ivory inlay keyholes usually go with stamped brass plates.
c. 1760-1780A simple small well-faded mahogany chest with well-made splay feet and apron and the unusual feature of portrait brasses. The square flat moulding on the top with a simple crossbanding and black stringing line to emphasise it suggests a later date.mc. 1800
Well figured and with slightly stilted splay feet (compare with 388 below). The apron with the shaping repeated around the sides is a pleasing feature. Overall good quality reflected in the fine section mouldings.
c. 1780
As with the bow-fronted chests so here is a small late example which might ‘improve’. One can visualise an effort to turn it into 388. cockbeading, splay feet, apron, and flat moulding. Apart from the pine drawer linings (and maybe even pine sides) what will give it away is the ‘flash Alf’ use of the matching grain. Look at the preceding three pages and notice that in the rare case where a matched grain is used, as in 374, it is done with restraint. In any event the original buns will have left big round holes which will raise
question marks. It really ought to be appreciated in its own right.
Late 19th century In top showroom condition mahogany  sides and with brass handles
Rough condition and pine sides

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.

Flat-fronted chest of drawers

1. Perfectly matching veneer across the whole front.
2. Well-matched veneer on both sides, of corresponding thickness and colour as the front.
3. Half-round moulding down side edges and across drawer rails.
4. Mitred joins to cross-cut veneer around drawers
indicating high quality. Poorer quality workmanship had butt joins.
5. Cross-cut veneer set at a sharp 45′ angle indicates early pieces from c.1680-1705.
6. Cross grain combined with herringbone indicates
c.1695-1710. Cross-grain veneer banding alone after c.1710.
7. Plain plinth base with thick double or single half-round moulding with mitred edges.
8. Top flaring with shallow cornice-type moulding until c.1740.
9. On veneered pieces, drawers of oak with bottom grooves for runners.
10. From c.1720-35 some lesser-quality chests with drawers of close-grained imported pine, but drawer construction must be right for period.
Likely restoration and repair
11. If three drawers in top flight rather than two: almost
certainly the top half of same period tallboy.
12. New top with later moulded edges - confirms above point. Tops of tallboys were of unfinished carcase wood.
13. With three flights of drawers only. If top drawer is full width, it most probably comes from the bottom half of same period tallboy. With two drawers in top flight, examine closely for alterations, plugged screwholes of original single drawer.
14. Oak carcase: likely to be late eighteenth-early nineteenth century chest with newly added walnut veneer in early Georgian style. A popular ‘restoration’ in the 1920s and 1930s.
15. Pine carcase sides with pine drawers indicates Continental, probably Dutch.
16. Thinner timber sides: suspect Victorian replacement.
Historical background
There were two distinct periods during which flat-fronted chests of drawers were fashionable. Both periods can quite correctly be called ‘Georgian’, although nearly a century may separate them. The earliest of these was during and immediately after Queen Anne’s reign, and the second was during the Regency, when Hepplewhite reintroduced plain rectangular lines as a relief from the curved and serpentine shapes which had dominated the middle of the century. Of the two, the former are rarer to find and more interesting,
since many minor, but important, structural changes occurred between early methods of construction and the Georgian period. By the time Hepplewhite reintroduced the flat-fronted chest of drawers, construction was firmly established and furniture was being made in commercial quantities.
Early Georgian chests of drawers were still being made in walnut veneer, although its popularity was waning. By c.1735 some furniture was already being made in mahogany, which was clearly set to oust walnut, since supplies had virtually ceased to be imported. There were still stocks of seasoned walnut and walnut veneer available, but from 1720 France, England’s main supplier, imposed a total ban on exports. Thus, virtually without any change in construction, the same design was made in mahogany from c.1740 onwards.
Construction and materials
It is believed that not a few of these fine early Georgian walnut-veneered pieces were made with sides of solid walnut as well as in veneer. Perhaps this accounts for their relative rarity, since walnut is very susceptible to woodworm, and large quantities of fine walnut furniture has been quite literally reduced to dust. Veneers were carefully chosen to match over the entire front of the chest; tops were veneered in a single piece and not quarter-veneered, with bands of cross-cut veneer with mitred corners.
Drawer linings were of oak until the mid-eighteenth century. Dovetails were smaller stopped or lapped dovetails, and the sides of the drawers now enclosed the bottom boards, which were grooved on the outer edge to form bottom runners. Drawer pulls had improved from the rather insecure tang fixtures, and were now fixed to drawer fronts with flat-ended, thick, hand-cut screws terminating on the outside in a cast knob bored to take the drawer-pull, and on the inside with a nut, notched to take a special tightening tool. These fixings are known as ‘pummel pins’.
Detail
Early Georgian chests of drawers still display many design features of an earlier age, notably the popular bun feet and simple plinth moulding found on much Queen Anne furniture. Tops were made with echoes of cornice moulding, as in the previous century, splaying outward from the sides and front. Side edges finished flush with the front and drawers were edged with heavy cockbeading. But there was still half-round moulding on the drawer rails, and drawers were also bordered with cross-cut veneer or herringbone
banding. Many chests of drawers of this period have long since had their original bun feet replaced with bracket feet as fashion changed, and probably also as the veneered plinth moulding became chipped and damaged.
Variations
Chests of drawers were still fairly rare pieces of furniture in all but wealthy households. Some were made in oak, with plain-fronted drawers except for added cock-beading, otherwise much the same in construction as earlier oak chests of drawers. Smaller in size because of the smaller rooms they were intended for, they were often made originally with plain turned wooden knobs, and sometimes with herringbone inlaid banding around drawers, but no other decoration. Plain plinth bases were mounted on bun or bracket feet.
Country chests of drawers of this period were often still made in the traditional fashion, in two halves, with panelled sides. They are easy to distinguish from later country-made chests of drawers by their fine workmanship, the lines of half-round moulding along the drawer rails, and the quality of the timber which is much finer, more close-grained and smooth-surfaced.
Reproductions
Most common is the later Hepplewhite-period flat-fronted chest of drawers in mahogany veneer, usually on a red or white pine carcase, or on cheap Honduras or baywood mahogany for the better-quality versions. Inevitably, these well-designed late eighteenth-century chests of drawers merge into later, cheaply made and mass-produced nineteenth-century pieces, easy to detect from their thin, almost figureless veneer, machine-cut shaped aprons, stamped-brass handles, often with bone or ivory escutcheons.
Edwardian copies which are distinguished by badly fitting drawers and plywood backs.
It might be added here that many of these, originally
veneered in thin machine-cut veneer but with good, solidly made Victorian pine carcases, have been stripped and sold as original pine. Pine chests of drawers were not made until the end of the eighteenth century, and can easily be distinguished by their early methods of construction and detail.
Price bands
Sectional construction in oak,500-900.
With walnut veneer. $2,000-3,000.
Late eighteenth-century mahogany, 400-600.
Variations, top left: plain, early Georgian oak chest of drawers, made in two halves, with locks on the bottom drawer of each half, small, turned, wooden handles and simple panelled drawers. Bottom left: an eighteenth-century chest of drawers mounted on a low stand with a single drawer. The drop handles are from an earlier period, but the graduated drawers are early Georgian.