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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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′ [...]