Antique Chest Of Drawers

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.

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.

CHESTS  on turned stands
The distinction between chests on stands and chests which merely had bun feet to support them is that broadly speaking apart from the round holes for the buns at the four corners of the bottom of the chest, the former did not have veneered tops while the latter did. Our ancestors were shorter and it seems that as long as the chest had a stand which lifted it by about two feet or more there was no need to veneer the top. Chests with newly veneered tops are those which have either lost their stands altogether or have lost their feet (normally replaced by oversize buns) which exposes the top to view. Obviously chests on stands should have no bun holes. Clearly 337 (assuming the stand were original) would be much happier on the type of legs supporting 336. The thin flat stretchers should be veneered on the top and normally on the front edges. The same general rule applies for replacement legs as given for bureaux on stands, viz where stands or legs have been replaced, the value is reduced drastically, if badly done, by over 50%.
A marquetry chest on stand incorporating oyster veneers. The design is similar to 334 but the spirally-turned stand of five legs joined by a curved flat stretcher on bun feet is the more usual for this design, which is frequently found in figured walnut. The stand has a single drawer. Very often the turned legs may have been removed due to damage and the chest is modified to sit on bun feet.
A similar walnut chest on stand with ‘thumbnail’ top edge moulding and rather bulbous turned legs. Again a design frequently found without the turned legs and with the single drawer stand mounted on bun feet due to damage. Stand looks particularly suspect.
A large walnut chest with burr veneer mounted on a shaped stand showing typical ogee curves to the edge of the apron. The faceted legs look a little slender for the size of chest but the robust stretcher of elaborate design is veneered on the top surface with the same walnut burr veneer as the rest of the piece.
A simpler walnut chest on stand with matched veneers on the drawer fronts. There is a diagonal cross-band veneer to the drawers and double-D moulding to the carcase edges. The turned legs are perhaps a trifle heavy, with rather modern-looking tapered central sections.
A walnut chest on a stand which has lost its legs and been resettled on large bun feet. The difference in the figure of the walnut veneer of the chest, which is close-figured with plenty of curl, and the stand, which is straighter grained, leads to the conclusion that the chest and stand did not start out in life together.

CHESTS OF DRAWERS - 1690-1720
A very fine oyster veneered chest of drawers on bun feet which are a bit small in proportion. Parquetry work of this kind, involving geometric designs made up from small oyster veneers, requires a high degree of skill. Note the ‘thumbnail’ top edge moulding and deep proportion. Just short of 2ft. in depth.
1690-1710
A marquetry chest of drawers in faded sycamore with panels of sharply contrasting woods. A very striking piece with the typical thumbnail moulding of the period. Marquetry in panels is associated with this earlier period, but perhaps even more desirable are the flower vases and buds in panels with green stained bone pieces inserted. Later the marquetry spread all over and gradually became thinner and rather effete. c. 1685
The classic profile of an early walnut chest  herring-bone crossbanding to the drawers, matched veneers, half-round or D cross-grained mouldings on the edges of the carcase front. The bun feet are replacements but of correct proportions. The top is quartered and cross-banded. Brasses later, keyholes original.
1700-1720
A laburnum parquetry veneer chest with inlaid boxwood stringing lines in typical patterns. Even the diamond shape inlaid in the sides is quite usual and is possibly a design left over from oak carving or applied moulding on much earlier chests. Bracket feet and walnut crossbanding are the other principal features. Handles are not original.
1700-1720
A burr yew chest on bracket feet, with boxwood banding to the drawers. The heavy top moulding is of cross-grained yew, as is the lighter bottom moulding, but the half-round on the edges of the carcase has been cut along the grain. Again, the handles are later. Price high because yew is expensive.
1700-1720
A country walnut chest with inlaid boxwood and ebony stringing lines in conventional patterns. The straight grained walnut of this more humble piece still matches. Note the original handles which are fixed through the drawer fronts with thin steel wire. The wire has often broken and been replaced by bands, but this is not very important. Buns are replacements. c.1710

CHESTS  early oak with moulded fronts
A less decorated example, illustrated with one lower door open to show the three drawers fitted in the lower part. Many of the mouldings and applied split balusters are made of fruit-wood which would originally have been ebonised. The piece is typically Anglo-Dutch and the ivory and pearl inlay, of Flemish-Spanish origin, have been referred to in the introduction to this section. Notice the original iron loop handles on the drawers. c.1660
A typical early oak example in which the lower drawers are enclosed behind doors whose moulding and decoration matches that of the upper drawer. The piece is in two halves which can be lifted separately, the join being hidden by a case moulding, and the lower half is on bun feet. Note the applied decoration and the receding ‘chequer-board’ centre panel in the top drawer.
A small oak chest on bun feet missing some of its brass drop handles. There is a pleasant split bobbin decoration applied horizontally under the top and between each drawer.
The remaining decoration consists of pairs of split balusters applied vertically beside each drawer. The moulding on the drawer fronts is very simple, and the top drawer is simply panelled. Note the thicker top with its simple edge. Later handles. c. 1680
A small oak chest with fruitwood front, 34ins. wide, made in one carcase piece, with the typical deep top drawer which is left over from the two types above, where the lower drawers were cupboarded. Now, in this piece, the lower drawers have emerged in their own right and are suitably moulded. The decoration of the top drawer is interesting, with four ivory ‘buttons’ placed around an oval moulding. Note the ’stump’ feet, which are formed by a continuation of the vertical carcase frame. Handles missing. c. 1670
The simplest later form of these chests with each drawer divided into two panels by the mouldings. There is a simple half-round moulding applied across the carcase front between each drawer, a precursor of the half-round or D moulding of the walnut period. The bracket feet have been added later. Instead of the simple, thin top of the earlier examples, the top has now become thick enough to have a `thumb nail’ edge moulding around it. Replacement handles. 1700-1720
Veneered in very thick elm with fine bold mouldings not only at top and bottom but where the piece would originally have come in half. The veneers are still arranged on the drawers in two halves as they would have been had they been moulded first. Again, colour most important affect on price. c. 1680

CHESTS AND CHESTS OF DRAWERS
Chests, often referred to as coffers, were very important until the mid-seventeenth century and were still made in quantity throughout the eighteenth century. They were about the only form of storage for most people.
The earliest form of chest was probably a hollowed-out tree trunk with a crude lid. By the thirteenth century, however, simple coffer-like chests with carved decoration and hinged lids, which could be locked, were in use. The solid sides reached the floor to act as feet. By the sixteenth century a joined frame construction with panels was used and the panels, and possibly the lid, were decorated with carving and inlays in the grander examples.
The later part of the seventeenth century saw the introduction of drawers, both in the base of the chest to make what are now called mule chests, and in the top to form a type of half chest and half cabinet construction. There would be one or two drawers in the top half of the piece and doors below enclosed either a cabinet or more drawers.
The drawers were first grooved in the thick sides to run on bearers fixed to the carcase frame inside the piece but after about 1660 the bottom runner, which required a bearer or lining below the drawer, was used.
After the use of carved and inlaid decoration up to about 1650, mitred geometrical mouldings and split balusters were applied to the chest for decoration and this type of chest is characteristic of the period 1650-1680. Sometimes carved decoration and inlays of holly, box, bone, ivory and mother-of-pearl were used, adding to the richness of the piece. It is interesting to note that mother-of-pearl and ivory of this type came to Britain in this period from the Netherlandish craftsmen who emulated their Spanish conquerors. The latter in their turn obtained such decoration from the Moors, who use it to this day.
With the use of walnut from about 1680 onwards, a lighter construction of a pine carcase was used, with pine or oak outer surfaces on which decorative veneers were laid. These chests were very often mounted on stands with twist-turned legs or legs of baluster and inverted cup-turned forms. Whereas earlier chests had carried the frame to the floor to form feet or, after about 1650, had used the turned `bun’ foot, these now started to give way to the bracket foot. The bracket foot is, of course, a design feature, not a
constructional one, since the weight of the chest is taken on an inner block on to which the outer bracket-shaped pieces are fixed. It is aesthetically more in sympathy with the square outline of the chest above it and enjoyed successful use on square chests up to the nineteenth century.
After the walnut period of 1680-1740, mahogany was used, in veneered or solid construction. The grander pieces of the famous designers, Adam, Chippendale, Hepplewhite and so on, showed greater varieties of design, with serpentine, bombe, bow and concave drawer fronts. Cabriole legs were used on finer pieces and the bracket foot was curved in serpentine form too. Hepplewhite’s designs showed the rather elegant splayed foot with its tapering curves, a most suitable design for serpentine and bow-fronted chests.
It is interesting to note that the fine semi-circular (or demi-lune, for Francophiles) satinwood commodes were a later eighteenth century innovation, appearing in Adam and Sheraton designs from about 1780 onwards. Before that the commodes featured by Chippendale and others followed somewhat French designs with scrolled or cabriole legs.
During this mid- and late-eighteenth century period not only mahogany was used for chest exteriors. Oak was used for country or provincial pieces, often cross-banded with mahogany.

From the start of the nineteenth century a gradual change started to take place in which heavier, classical designs came into use with darker decorations such as ebony stringing.Gradually the influence of mass-production began to make itself felt towards the middle of the century, with chests of drawers being turned out in large numbers and varying qualities for the bedrooms of the booming population. The feet became turned and rather bulbuous, then gave way to a flat apron around the chest which gives a heavier
appearance of a solid base with no feet at all. Nevertheless a variety of woods was used, from mahogany, rosewood and satinwood to burr walnut, maple and much pine or deal.
Oak for drawer linings called wainscot oak was imported from Scandinavia. The grain is even and well suited to making of panelling (hence wainscot) or drawers. One often finds that good quality chests are lined in oak and, moreover, that the better the piece the thinner the linings and the finer the dovetails. Thus a good quality marquetry or walnut chest could have oak linings of about 1/4ins. whereas a poor quality country example might have pine linings of double that thickness. Always look at the back of a drawer and the front
to make sure that any holes on the inside are accounted for on the outside, i.e. no reveneering has occurred. There is more faked or doctored walnut furniture in existence than almost any other English furniture.
Value Points:
Oak Period (up to 1690)
1973-1977 have seen an enormous boom in oak furniture
and although oak chests have not been in the forefront of it, they have followed it and many of the same value points which apply to other pieces apply also to chests. These are:
-Colour and patination
-Originality and lack of restoration
-Original handles
-Original feet
-Carving and decoration of high quality
-Walnut Period (1680-1740)
-Original stand to chest on stand
-Marquetry or parquetry
-Choice of veneers and figuring
-Patination and colour
-Original handles and keyplates
-Cross-grained mouldings
(We have assumed that pieces have an original, veneered top unless a high chest on stand or chest on chest which was above eye level. Beware reveneered tops or ‘top halves’ with newly veneered tops.)
-Veneered and cross-banded sides
(Country pieces have plain veneered sides or sides in plain oak or  less quality  plain pine.)
-Oak drawer linings
(Country chests lined in pine.)
-Original bracket or bun feet
-Size: 3ft. wide or less
-2ft. 9ins. wide or less
-2ft. 6ins. wide or less
-Quartered top
(The best walnut chests have a top veneered with four consecutive veneer sheets set contrapositionally so as to form a symmetrical pattern. Less quality pieces have only two sheets or a plain sheet or sheets not geometrically arranged on the top.)
`Feather’ or herring-bone inlay or crossbanding   Mahogany Period
-Choice of wood and figure
-Serpentine or bombe front
-Original handles and keyplates
-Decorative inlays
-Oak linings
-Colour and patination
-Size: as for walnut chests
-Brushing slide
-Nineteenth Century Chests
-Colour and patination
-Choice of veneers or figured woods
-Size: as for walnut period above
-Original handles or knobs
-Quality of construction

Military chest

1. Made of solid mahogany, cedarwood, camphorwood or padouk wood.
2. Cast-brass backplates
recessed into drawer fronts with square, flush-fitting, hinged drawer handles. Brass corners and reinforcements set flush into the wood, secured with countersunk screws.
3. Flush escutcheons, locks with brass cases and brass levers.
4. All sides of chest in solid wood built like a trunk, with no backboard planking.
5. Oak-lined drawers with reinforced pine runners, half-round moulding on insides, drawer bottoms with grain running from side to side with central strengthening batten.
6. Fitted helmet drawer, or small secretaire fall-front, either the width of the top drawer or fitted centrally between two small flanking drawers.
7. Iron carrying handles fixed with steel screws on backplates.
8. Both surfaces of top and bottom and corresponding brass corner-pieces scratched and scuffed with wear.
9. Where there is a secretaire drawer or writing compartment, brass catches to secure fall-front, cleated sides to writing surface, usually inset with tooled leather, brass double-hinges to flap. Both halves of equal depth.
Likely restoration and repair
10. Original fitted drawers damaged, new drawer-linings or top drawer-front repaired, joined or replaced where fall-front or helmet drawer has been removed or converted.
11. Iron carrying handles replaced with brass ones.
12. Turned or bun feet added at later date, usually late
nineteenth century.
13. Top and base of different depths: usually some of the central section has been
damaged and the second or third drawer and frame cut down and repaired.
14. Brass corner-pieces replaced with thinner, more yellow brass than originals, lacking any sign of patination, build-up of dirt or corrosion around edges.
Historical background
In sharp contrast to the ebullience and indiscriminate mixing of almost every period and style by the nineteenth-century furniture designers, the travelling furniture made for the officers in the Napoleonic wars has endured as a reminder that Victorian design could be plain, simple and eminently practical. Whole suites of campaign furniture or military furniture was made between about 1800 and 1870. Some were quite elaborate and all were hinged, folded or divided into more or less regulation-sized chests with brass-reinforced corners to prevent damage in transit. Voyages across the Atlantic still took many months: important passengers furnished empty sea-cabins with similar travelling furniture. A few examples of these grander pieces remain, such as glassdoored display cabinets or bookcases folding to the size
of cabin trunks, but most of it has not survived. Best known are military chests, made in two halves, with a variety of different fittings, such as small secretaire drawers or deep helmet drawers.
Similar in concept were the tall specimen cabinets known as Wellington chests, with hinged side flaps which lock over the drawer edges to prevent them from opening in transit.
There is, however, no evidence that the Duke of Wellington ever owned or used such a chest on any of his many campaigns.
Construction and materials
Military chest
Military chests were always made in solid wood, usually mahogany, although padouk, cedar and camphorwood were also used, for they were proof against damp and moths on long campaigns and distant journeys. The construction is solid, with mitred dovetailing. Drawers have oak linings with pine-reinforced runners and half-round corner mouldings on the inside, firmly glued to the sides and bottom. No nails are used in the main construction  after joints had been cut they were coated with strong glue and clamped together.
The two carrying handles on each half were originally of iron, but most of them have been replaced with brass handles to match the flush, sunk drawer fittings. For obvious reasons, military chests were not mounted on any kind of feet or base. Occasionally they might be fitted with small castors mounted on additional blocks.
Wellington chest
Wellington chests were also originally made in solid wood, either mahogany, rosewood or imported walnut, but from c.1850 onwards, having been adopted as a piece of library furniture or as specimen chests, they were frequently also veneered. They were as solidly made as military chests, with no decoration except for small `capitals’ at the top of the hinged side-flap and its corresponding upright on the other side. Drawers always had small, turned, wooden knobs, and many of them were originally lined with velvet, divided
into compartments and sometimes fitted with grooved glass lids. In the second half of the nineteenth century, veneers were on good-quality carcases of ‘baywood’ or red pine, in walnut, rosewood, mahogany and maple. There was no cockbeading round the drawers, which fitted flush without escutcheons. The only lock was in the hinged side-flap.
Variations
Military chests were unique to a particular echelon of society, whether in military service, travelling or going abroad on consular or diplomatic business. The rank and file in the army had no such luxuries, neither did poor emigrants who undertook long voyages in extreme discomfort. Its parallel is the brassbound chest, made and used by all types of traveller, sometimes in brass-studded, leather-covered wood, or plain, iron-bound, wooden chests. Military chests probably evolved from the plain chests of drawers made in two
halves of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The most singular difference was the lack of lock and lock rail to the top drawers of both halves of the traditional chest of drawers.
Far right: library document chest in solid walnut, c.1870.
Right: plain mahogany
Wellington chest with graduated drawers and hinged locking flap.
Reproductions
Although not campaign or military furniture, contemporary pieces for use in libraries, draughtsmen’s offices and for keeping documents and maps are of the same family as military chests in their totally functional design, lack of ornament, beautiful finish and excellent craftsmanship. It is as well to remember, however, that multitudes of small shops were equipped with beautifully made, built-in flights of drawers which, with little effort, can be transformed into very similar-looking pieces.
The attractive, clean lines and elegant brass finish has been copied by many small furniture-makers in small chests of drawers.
In relatively recent years American reproduction furniture manufacturers have produced some good pieces of similar appearance, but they are almost always made in heavy
chipboard, veneered in `cherrywood’ or ‘yew wood’ and made with modern techniques and with bonded joins, which are not intended to deceive or masquerade as genuine.
Price bands
Wellington chest, plain, solid mahogany, c.1860, 550-800.
Veneered in walnut or bird’s eye maple, c.1800, 450-750.
Library chests in walnut, mahogany or rosewood, 750-1,000.
Military chest in padouk, cedar or camphorwood, 600-1.000.

Bow-fronted chest of drawers

1. Fine, well-figured solid mahogany with well-matched mahogany veneer on drawer fronts.
2. Oak-lined drawers to c.1800 with slim cockbeaded outline and plain swan-necked drawer handles. Oval backplates from C.1810.
3. Delicate, double or triple reeding or thumb moulding to sides of the top on the overhang. Plain back edge is flush with backing planks.
4. Backs in unfinished timber of same age and patination, with gaps where shrinkage has occurred with time.
5. Curved fronts of dustboards in separate piece.
6. Graduated drawer depths.
7. Four full-width drawers to c.1800 when a pair of top drawers replaced the single one.
8. Bracket feet made separately to c.1800 with a thin line of moulding around the base. From c.1800c.1840 feet are integral with side timbers.
9. After c. 1830, chests of drawers taller, often with five flights of drawers, on round, turned feet.
Likely restoration and repair
10. From c.1850 made in much larger sizes, which may be cut down to better-looking
`Sheraton’ shape. Top pair of drawers removed, piece raised with splayed bracket feet to add height; new top with ‘Sheraton’ reeding often added as a separate fillet which can be seen from the back.
11. Later, five-flight chests of drawers cut down in similar fashion, with turned feet
replaced with splayed bracket feet and shaped apron added the join will show on the sides.
12. Drawer handles set too close to edge on small chest, which indicates it has probably been cut down, the turned wooden handles removed and new brass backplates added to conceal the original holes. No patination around the new backplates.
Historical background
It is probable that the bow-fronted chest of drawers was an evolution of the flamboyant French commode and the bombe shape so favoured by the Dutch. The bombe shape, with its double curves and sinuously swelling sides, was never as popular in England as plainer, serpentine shapes, although Chippendale incorporated the curved sides into many of his French-influenced designs. There is evidence of Hepplewhite’s use of bow-fronted shapes, particularly in his designs for bedroom and boudoir furniture, but it would seem that it was Sheraton who first produced this enduring shape which has become, like his sideboard, a standard piece of English furniture.
Few bow-fronted chests of drawers can be directly attributed to a particular
designer, and most of the fine early examples are more often described as ‘George III’, a generous label since it covers 60 years, from 1760 to 1820. The finest early mahogany examples fall into the early part of this period, when they were made with curving bracket feet, fine cockbeading on the graduated drawers and brushing slides. Later versions are of the more familiar early nineteenth-century design, with shaped aprons and slightly splayed feet, made in mahogany veneer on a red pine or, sometimes, a cheap mahogany
carcase.
Bow-fronted chests of drawers are seldom found in any other wood or veneer except dark mahogany, and it is fair to assume that they were intended for gentlemen’s dressing rooms and bedrooms, at least until the end of the nineteenth century.
Construction and materials
Early bow-fronted chests of drawers followed the same construction principles as serpentine-fronted chests of drawers, in that they were made in solid wood with veneered drawer-fronts and deep thumb moulding around three sides of the top. There was no overhang at the back. A line of moulding ran round the base, which was mounted on curving or slightly splayed bracket feet. From c.1780 reeded moulding was introduced around the tops, and was believed to have been originated by Thomas Sheraton. Drawers were still oak-lined and veneered, and were outlined with a thin, typically late eighteenth century, line of cockbeading.
There were four graduated single drawers until c.1800 when frequently a pair of drawers replaced the single one in the top flight. Up to this date the slim top drawer was sometimes fitted as a writing drawer, with the brushing slide serving a double purpose.
Drawers had runners on small blocks on either side of the dustboards. They were made in two pieces, with the curved front edge cut separately. As with all other storage pieces, the drawers and
dustboards did not run the full depth of the piece, but stopped a little short to allow air to circulate inside. Backs were of unfinished planking, oak or cheaper-grade mahogany.
From c.1820 the bow-front became more accentuated as techniques of bending and steaming timber began to be used, and from this date carcases were often made of red pine.
Detail
Plain brass-rimmed locks were replaced with Victorian Bramah locks from c.1846, and all drawers, at least until the end of the nineteenth century, were fitted with locks. From c.1850 the front edge of the top was often given an exaggerated curve to add visually to the line of the bow-front. Top edges of veneered chests of drawers were mainly flush from c.1810-30, while solid tops had rounded moulding. Few bow-fronts after c.1820 incorporated brushing slides, and by c.1850 turned wooden knobs often replaced brass
drawer handles, and rounded turned feet replaced the splayed bracket feet and curving apron.
Variations
There are many Continental variations of the bombe-shaped chest of drawers with its double curve and swelling front. They were often made in walnut, and were sometimes late variations of earlier walnut marquetry pieces. They tend to have very decorative handles and escutcheons and oak-lined drawers, but although at first glance they seem to resemble a bow-front, they are more serpentine in shape.
It is extremely unlikely that bow-fronted chests of drawers were ever originally made in pine. The main point about pine furniture in the nineteenth century was that it was cheap to make in quantity, which would not have been true of a bow-fronted piece. If these are encountered, it is more likely that they were originally well-made carcases of chests of drawers which have been stripped of their thin veneer to add value during the fashion for stripped-pine furniture.
George III bow fronted mahogany commode.
Reproductions
The most common reproduction is the Sheraton copy, with the familiar late Victorian or early Edwardian version of the conch shell or spray of flowers inlaid in paler-coloured panels, as seen on other bedroom furniture of the same period. The mahogany veneer is thin and without good figuring, the escutcheons frequently of bone or ivory, and the piece may well have been French polished to increase the glossiness of its appearance. American pine carcases were common for these reproductions, and the quality of the
finish in many cases is poor, with rough edges under the machine-cut curved apron, and drawers which do not fit properly.
However, much good-quality `Sheraton revival’ furniture was made during the first decades of the twentieth century, and among the favourite pieces for gentlemen’s dressing rooms and bedrooms was the bow-fronted chest of drawers, in many cases far better made than those of the late nineteenth century. They were made by furniture-makers who supplied the main
furnishing department stores of the day. Once seen and handled, they are not easily confused with the cheap run-of-the mill reproductions with shoddy workmanship of the same period.
Price bands
Hepplewhite period, fine figured veneer and brushing slide,$1,100-1,500.
Satinwood veneer, top quality, some inlay and decoration, 2,000+.
George III splayed feet, good veneer, 900-1,200.
Early Victorian good quality c.1850, 600-900.
Late nineteenth-century, variable quality, $300-750.

Carolean chest of drawers

1. Mellow, rich colour of timber, hardened with age.
2. Graining, rippling and figuring of wood where it has been split or quarter-sawn, rather than cut as planks.
3. Base should show signs of heavy wear, knocking and `fraying’ of timber.
4. Applied moulding and decoration, cut from single piece of wood with continuous graining, not in individual sections with change in grain.
5. Marked signs of wear on drawers and runners.
6. Dents on front below drop handle where it has fallen and swung over years of use.
7. Patination on sides of drawers through handling.
8. Side panels slightly loose from timber shrinkage.
9. Top of chest not completely flat, showing signs of curving and bending with damp, changes in temperature, shrinkage along the grain.
10. Drop handles corresponding to holes in drawer-fronts — no other signs of screw holes or bore holes, where handles have been moved or replaced.
Likely restoration and repair
11. Three small drawers in top flight indicates that the piece is the top half of a chest-on-chest. This applies to walnut-veneered chests of drawers only.
12. New top too flat and even, denotes the same: tops of cheston-chests were of unfinished planking.
13. Moulding and reeding, secured with brass pins - usually a Victorian ‘improvement’ to a plain-fronted chest or a Victorian ‘original’.
14. Side-panelling frames do not match up with drawer-frames -newly replaced, or new frame from old timbers.
15. New timbers in base seen when bottom drawer is removed - should be same age as the back plank. Suspect other replacements if this is the case.
Historical background
Chests with one long drawer beneath them are found from the mid-seventeenth century onwards, variously described as `mule chests’, ‘dowry chests’ or ,counter chests’, each with various explanations for their names. A ‘mule chest’ is recent terminology, a ‘dowry chest’ is self-explanatory, and ‘counter chests’ were believed to have been used by merchants, with drawers for money and documents. Some credence may be attached to the last, since early inventories refer to drawers as `titles’, the word still used for money-drawers today.
By the Restoration, the whole frame of the chest was taken up with drawers, although some early chests have two drawers in the base, made as one piece, and a hinged top to a more shallow chest which fitted above the drawers. Others have a single deep drawer in the top half, and two drawers in the base. Even when they were proper ‘chests of drawers’ they continued to be made in two pieces, in a manner similar to early bureaux.
In principle, chests of drawers were either made of oak, with fielded or coffered panels and drawers running on a side-runner, with the traditional frame and panel construction, or in veneer or marquetry with carcase construction and drawers on bottom runners. Chests of drawers of this period had four flights of drawers, often with a pair of shallow drawers in the top flight. They were taller than those of later periods, and were usually mounted on plain block feet or bun feet from c.1690. Few chests of drawers were made without locks, for they were intended as places of safe-keeping as well as storage.
Construction and materials
Of the two types, the solid wood chest of drawers is more interesting in its construction, since carcase construction became the standard method of making veneered chests of drawers from the eighteenth century onwards.
With oak chests of drawers, the frame construction can clearly be seen, with panelled sides, cross- frames, and the drawers decorated with applied mouldings to conceal through dovetails with reeding, string-of-beads or half-round beading. The top was made in a single piece. Drawer bottoms were usually joined with a simple rebate to the sides, reinforced with iron nails and with the grain of bottom boards running from front to back. Drawers for clothes and storage did not run the full depth of the piece, but there was a space of two to three inches to allow air to circulate inside the chest.
Detail
At this period, simple drop-handles were most common, with small circular or rosette-shaped backplates. The cast brass drop-handles were secured to the drawer fronts by a rudimentary split pin, called a tang, which was pushed through a hole in the drawer front and then hammered flat on the inside. The top edges of drawers were smoothly rounded, the runners nailed or pinned to the interior sides of the carcase. In heavier pieces, drawer sides had a groove into which side-runners fitted. These drawers are sometimes known as ‘hung’ drawers. Tops showed vestiges of the cornice shape, with moulding below the overlap, although by the end of the century they were also made with simple lip-moulding or edge moulding. Backs were of plain oak planking, nailed to the frame.
Variations
The oak chest of drawers with frame construction was the prototype for much country-made furniture for several centuries. Plain-fronted oak chests of drawers with simple reeded or half-rounded mouldings and small turned
wooden knobs were made well into Georgian days. Some smaller chests of drawers in yew wood, fruit
woods and beech, as well as the familiar country mixture of oak and elm were made at a slightly later period. It is as well to remember that chests of drawers implied considerable possessions and clothing, and that until the mid-eighteenth century relatively few people needed more than a single chest in which to store their `Sunday best’.
Below left: late seventeenth-century oak chest of drawers made in two halves.
Below: William and Mary chest of drawers on bun feet.
Reproductions
Eighteenth century
Oak chests of drawers with more elaborately decorated panels are usually of a later date and are Flemish or Continental. Many marquetry chests of drawers are on pine carcases, indicating that they stem from Dutch or German origins where they were made long after they had gone out of fashion in England.
Nineteenth century
During the Victorian Tudor revival, countless copies of early oak furniture were made, among them chests of drawers from old panelling and timbers with stained frames of coarse-grained, poorly seasoned oak, which has cracked and split and may
mislead the novice into believing it to be of a far earlier period. The drawer timber in particular will show up its relative lack of age from the almost black lines in the grain of commercially seasoned oak.
Twentieth century
Marquetry and decorative
veneer enjoyed (if that is the right word) a boom during the ‘twenties, when many fine, flat-fronted chests of drawers of the Hepplewhite period were
stripped of their plain mahogany veneers which were replaced by vulgar, machine-cut ‘marquetry’ and inlay. The essential clue to this disastrous period is that the carcase wood is pine and not oak. The veneer was thin and cut in sheets with the grain running through decorative panels and inlay.
Price bands
Oak with coffered or fielded panels, c.1680, $2,000-3,000.
Oyster veneer, laburnum, olive or walnut with
stringing, c.1700, $4,000.
Veneered front, plain sides, c.1700, 1,600-2,000.
Oak with sectional construction, c.1700, $1,500-2,500.