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.

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.

TALLBOYS OR CHESTS ON CHESTS
About 1710-1820
Chippendale-style mahogany tallboy, about 1765-1780.
Adevelopment of the chest on stand, used in bedrooms to store clothing. Especially popular during the second half of the 18thC - from when most date - despite being too high to use fully without standing on a chair.
Formed as two chests of drawers, the upper one slightly narrower than the lower. Nearly all straight-fronted, with bracket (often ogee) feet, though some around 1760 are serpentine, and later, from about 1780,
bow-fronted, with splayed ’swept’ feet.
Upper part has two or three short drawers above three feet long. A projecting moulded cornice is common; occasionally a broken pediment. Some have a frieze too; on early examples, occasionally, a cushion frieze
conceals a drawer.
Fashionably, corners canted; carved as columns or pilasters, in the mid-century, shallow Gothic or Chinese fret, or simple reeding or fluting.
Lower chest has three long drawers; mouldings around base and top into which upper chest slots. Occasionally a cavetto moulding (semi-circular concave niche) decorated with marquetry sunburst pattern, on bottom drawer of walnut examples. Occasionally a brushing slide at top; sometimes a secretaire drawer (see DESKS, P. 111).
Drawers usually - not always - of diminishing depth within each chest. Handles sometimes aligned.
Left, Sheraton mahogany tallboy, about 1800; right, late-18thC mahogany secretaire tallboy.
Walnut veneer; mahogany (solid or veneer). Occasionally rosewood, amboyna and other highly figured woods during Regency. Sometimes country versions in oak. Oak and pine for carcases.
As for CHESTS OF DRAWERS (see p. 87). The separate projecting cornice slots over blocks glued at corners of top. Occasionally low relief carving on frieze.
Polish; (rarely) japanning.
VALUES
Even the plainest tallboy will now fetch a four-figure sum and the best quality easily five. An early date, a cavetto moulding, a secretaire drawer, and, to a lesser extent, a brushing slide, and well figured and coloured veneers, will push the price up.
MARRIAGES
In the past tallboys were less fashionable than today and many were split up and sold as two separate chests of drawers. The reverse process is now common, so watch for marriages. Look for: correct conformation of
drawers; matching timber on all sides, including backboards; identical construction of all drawers; rough, unfinished surface on tops of both parts (neither would have been visible); canted corners on top and bottom, or top only.

CHESTS OR COFFERS
About 1200-1800
Typical 17thC three-panel carved oak chest.
Known as blanket chests in the 18thC, these were used for the storage of clothing and linen and, in the Middle Ages, other valuables too (hence their often elaborate, sometimes multiple locks). Originally placed at the end of the bed they sometimes doubled up as a seat or table. They were largely superseded in the mid-17thC by the more sophisticated chests of drawers. Surviving examples available for sale date mostly from the late-16thC onwards; earlier examples are rare except in churches or public collections.
Medieval forms included the dug-out, ark and clamp-fronted chests but most of those now available are:
Plank or ‘boarded’: Comprising six pieces of timber simply nailed together. Sides extend to the ground with V shape cut out to form feet. Usually carved decoration on front (and sometimes sides); simply carved border on sides of lid and vertical edges of front. Normally exterior plain, with square-plated iron lock with hinged hasp fastening. Although largely replaced around 1550 by panelled chests, boarded chests were still made in country areas in 18thC.
Joined/panelled: Made from about 1550, though panelled construction had been used in building since the previous century. Rectangular, with two, three (occasionally four) panels at front and back, one or two at sides. Lid flat, or panelled in line with base. Plain or moulded edges. Side stiles continue down to form legs. Nearly always carved decoration on front (often sides too), varying in extent; never carving on lid. Rails, stiles and muntins often moulded; sometimes chamfered around panels. Interior sometimes fitted with small, lidded, incorrectly named ‘candle box’, prob
ably to contain sweet-scented herbs.
On both types the underside of the lid was sometimes cross-battened.
Predominantly oak. Less durable woods such as elm, ash, chestnut and other local varieties also used, but few examples have survived. From about 1650 much ‘wainscot oak’ imported from Scandinavia (favoured for its fine, even grain) was used.
Cypress and (in the early-18thC) cedar occasionally used for their moth-repelling qualities.
Boarded: Front and back overlapping sides and pinned with iron nails. Timber split rather than sawn, hence no saw marks. Grain of sides runs top to bottom, other boards side to side. Should be some shrinkage along grain, probably some ‘bowing’ of lid. Rust stains on wood around nails. Lid fixed with large strap or small wire loop hinges (early chests often had pin hinges). The lockplate would also have been fixed with iron nails.
Chest fitted with strap hinges.
Panelled: Joined frame and panel construction; pegged mortise-and-tenon joints. Pegs of green willow (unlikely to split or shrink). Should be of irregular shape and size and protrude slightly above surface where surrounding wood has shrunk. Two rather than one peg per joint the norm in 17thC.
Dry panel construction (i.e. no glue) allows for shrinkage and movement of timber; panels therefore now slightly loose. Panels usually thinly cut, sometimes with chamfered edges to fit into grooves of frame.
Stiles always continue to top, the rails tenoning into their sides and muntins into rails.
The timber was either split or sawn: irregular saw marks therefore may be visible on under-sides.
On both types the interior should be ‘dust-dry’, i.e. with a smooth but not shiny surface. Recently sawn wood will have a slightly rough, splintery surface. There should be good patination from constant handling around the lock and front under-side of the lid. The under-sides of the feet will be worn and slightly ragged. Signs of repair to hinges and lock are not unusual.
Carving: Of many qualities; much simple chip-carving. Common motifs include Gothic tracery, roundels, arches, columns, Renaissance strapwork, guilloches, lunettes, lozenges, stylized foliage and flowers and arcading (the latter particularly on panels).
Some shallow ‘punched decoration’ punched on with a mallet and specially shaped metal tool  especially on boarded chests.
Motifs include stars, crescents, crosses, dots.
Sometimes inlay during 16thC and early
17thC, mostly of floral or geometric patterns.
NONESUCH CHESTS
The best known and most elaborately inlaid of these are Nonesuch (sometimes spelt Nonsuch) chests, believed to have been made by immigrant craftsmen working in Southwark. All depict views of Henry VIII’s Nonesuch Palace in Surrey which was demolished in 1670. Although intriguing and beautifully made, they are small in number, seldom for sale, and not typical of other chests of their day.
Originally stained and wax polished. Subsequent dry-rubbing has generally produced a good patina, i.e. a rich, dark colour, with a deep shine. Occasionally traces of paint are seen (especially on boarded chests). Although it is known that some early oak was painted probably all over in plain colours rather than finely decorated  the extent and exact procedure is yet to be fully researched.
VALUES
Plenty of variation; generally only boarded, simply chip-carved and completely plain panelled chests fail to reach the thousand mark. Plus points are: extensive vigorous carving (chip carving and punched decoration are at the bottom of the scale), no signs of repair or replacement parts, original locks and hinges, good, deep colour and patina.
Beware of large numbers of Continental chests imported for the ‘decorator’s’ market. Look at decoration and for any difference from standard methods of construction.
VICTORIAN ALTERATIONS
Some chests had additional carving executed in the 19thC when ‘Jacobean’ furniture was popular. Others were made up from old fragments of carving and discarded wall panelling. Check the construction; look for later and now discoloured staining intended to disguise new joints, and check all carving for inappropriate ornament, execution by different hands, and ‘mechanical’ appearance.
Below left, pin hinge; below light, wile hinge.

CHESTS
We start this section with two Spanish examples because a large number have been imported over the last ten years and some have been passed off as British.
At first sight a Gothic coffer, something that anyone interested in oak would very much like to own. Closer examination would suggest that the age is nearer eighteenth century than pre-1550. It is Spanish, one of a
number of these good looking chests that have been imported over the last twenty years. 18th century
Very heavily constructed chest, decorated with stylised geometric carving. The cross in the middle suggests use in a church or private chapel  both sources of many early chests. Country of origin not always easy to
determine  possibly Spanish. Late 16th century
The high prices for the impressive Spanish examples often come from the interior decorators’ market where the effect of antiquity is more important than originality. IMPORTANT. Look at the examples of Victorian
carving in the section on Victorian carving.
A highly ornate, well-carved and impressive chest. One can see the depth of carving, the assurance of the execution and almost feel the rich quality of what is obviously a fine patination. Inlaid panels and a bold
deeply-carved bottom moulding could add substantially to the price. c. 1600
This small, simple, solidly-made chest has two panels decorated with linenfold panelling. The multiple panel top is typical of the early period. Late 16th century
By no means a top quality chest, but vigorously and well carved with the traditional arch in the centre panel. Would now be sold as a `high quality’ chest. c. 1640
Although the panels are carved using a simple gouge chisel, the design is vigorous and well drawn and the effect is good. The rails and stiles are decorated with the same repetitive pattern of figures of eight but it,
too, is well done. Mid-17th century
An unusual form of chest in which the front is divided up into a number of small panels both horizontal as well as the normal vertical. The carving is just slightly crude, the serpents being simply gouged out. An
interesting piece that will sooner or later be given a location as more research in this field is undertaken.
A fairly common type with lozenge decoration and crudely executed lunettes. It has the advantage of being small. Late 17th century
This is an improved version of the previous example. The same pattern has been employed but the decoration both inside and around the two diamonds is more deeply cut and carefully carved. The line of arcading
along the top rail is accurately executed, while the guilloche carving on the middle stile is also of high quality. The top is panelled and the size is small.
A lesser example in which the arches are crudely outlined. Compare, too, the running carving which is of a much more simple form than its equivalent in the previous example. Nevertheless, a piece of considerable
charm with a good three-panelled top.
The ’six plank’ chest, in which the sides extend to the floor, was made by carvers contemporaneously with the mortise and tenon type made by the joiners. The well-executed arcading and not quite so good
half-round decorations, made it an attractive piece.
A much more simple chest and slightly larger than the last example. It is in elm and is later than it looks. The quality of the lunette-type patterns is about average for this type of chest.
Early 18th century
Typical of the large well made but undecorated chests frequently found and harder than usual to date. This is a four-panel version; the majority have only three panels.