Antique Chest Of Drawers

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.

Chest-on-stand

The revolution in the art of veneering was quite spectacular, both in terms of craftsmanship and in design. Veneering, marquetry and parquetry originally came to England from the Netherlands, and gained in popularity when Charles it returned from The Hague in 1660 with a retinue of foreign craftsmen, artists, silversmiths and designers. With the succession of William of Orange to the English throne in 1689, the two countries were, even more closely connected.
The technique of veneering, of which marquetry is a part, required a complete change in the construction of chest furniture, from the traditional frame construction to the carcase method. In England, carcase wood was almost exclusively close-grained Baltic pine with drawers lined in oak until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Dutch, by contrast, used red or white
European softwoods for their veneered furniture which, from the seventeenth century onwards, they made in far greater quantities and of varying qualities.
Marquetry seems to have arrived fully fledged in England, for there are no surviving examples of clumsy, early work while English craftsmen learned the new technique. From this it is perhaps fair to assume that skilled craftsmen from the Netherlands crossed the Channel and established the craft of ‘cabinet-making’ in England, teaching English carpenters and joiners a new skill. Previously their only method of decorating woods had been by inlaying.
Signs of authenticity
1. Interior surfaces more brightly coloured than exterior, which has been faded by light.
2. Oak drawer linings.
3. Locks inset into thickness of cabinet doors, drawer in base. Keyholes, escutcheons, should not break into decorative
pattern knobs, drawer-pulls should be set within drawer panels, rather than cutting into featherbanded or herringbone edging.
4. Steel or brass pin hinges to cabinet doors.
5. Steel locks and lock casings to c.1700, thereafter brass lock casings with steel levers.
6. Wide variety of woods for inlays: cherry, laburnum, olive wood, harewood, (dyed
sycamore) and, from c.1685 boxwood, holly, burrwood, ebony and yew wood.
7. On quartered veneer panels, such as the insides of doors with a central marquetry panel, the ground veneer is in four separate pieces: grain should not run through decorative panels in continuous line.
8. Featherbanding or herringbone cross-cut veneer around drawers and doors running to central point at top and bottom, not continuing round without change of direction.
9. Veneer thickness almost 1/8 in and same thickness on both sides of doors.
Likely restoration and repair
10. Exterior veneers scraped down to remove discolouration or fading, sometimes concealing parts which have been reveneered in new wood.
11. Drawer linings, of red or white pine indicates Dutch or Continental origins.
12. Plain veneer on inner surfaces of doors where original has lifted, bubbled and cracked, beyond repair.
13. Cornice directly above doors where cushion drawer has been damaged and removed.
14. Stands replaced with frieze-drawers, newly veneered to match up with cabinet: veneers are thinner, colours and cutting of marquetry will vary slightly from original.
15. Damage to carcase wood from weight of doors on hinges. Hard to detect, but important because weakness can recur. Veneer steamed off, wood repaired and veneer replaced, leaving no dirt around hinges.
Construction and materials
With the advent of carcase construction, not only did the old frame-and-panel method of making furniture change, but so did the construction of drawers. The old through dovetail was abandoned in favour of the stopped dovetail or lapped dovetail, and drawers ran on bottom runners instead of grooves on drawer sides, so that the thickness of drawers could be reduced and to give a smooth surface to which veneer could adhere.
As with chairs of the same period, many sound construction principles and the fine finish were sacrificed for the sake of appearance. The twist-turned legs of the stands were often no more than dowelled into the base of the carcase wood, and not surprisingly
Variations
Continental
Dowry chests without stands were imported in considerable quantities from the Netherlands from the end of the seventeenth century onwards, usually made in pine or poplar and inlaid with pale-coloured woods with motifs of hearts, doves, and tulips.
Small chests of drawers with two doors were more commonly made in England, in oak with fielded or coffered panels and drawers, for keeping small articles and precious possessions. They are very similar to spice cabinets of later date.
Right, above: a full view of the open chest-on-stand opposite  a superb Charles ii piece with cushion drawer. Inlaid panels of tulips, flowers and scrolls of leaves, all mounted on a twist-and bobbin-turned stand.
Right, below: a fine quality, late seventeenth century chest-onstand in oyster veneer.
few have survived intact. Most of the stands were made in walnut, another reason for their disappearance, since walnut is very susceptible to woodworm.
Detail
All decoration was on the surface, in the fine figuring of the veneer and the intricately cut marquetry designs. Chests were almost completely flush-surfaced, with the exception of the cushion drawer beneath the cornice. It comes as quite a surprise to find that the interior finish of these grand cabinets is often comparatively rough and ready, with crude iron nails still securing the sides and bottoms of drawers, unfinished wood, and coarse saw-cut oak planking nailed to the back.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century Chests-on-stands had a much longer life on the Continent than they did in England, although the nineteenth century saw a revival in popularity. Few were actually made in England but, either elaborately fitted with small drawers, or with two doors and an ordinary shelved cupboard, were imported in considerable numbers. The taste of the time was very much inclined towards the Gothic, and more chests-on-stands from southern Germany came into England at this period than their more traditional
counterparts from Holland.
Twentieth century
Spanish and Portuguese varguenos have come into England more recently, as well as cheaply made but impressive-looking Italian versions using tortoiseshell instead of veneer.
The veneer is frequently surrounded with ebonized stringof-beads moulding, similar to the fashion in England during the William and Mary period.
Most showy chests-on-stands of recent manufacture have not been made or reproduced in England because they are extremely time-consuming to make and the costs outweigh any ultimate profit.
Price bands
Charles II marquetry with fine interior fittings and original walnut stand with drawer, $9,000-12,000.
Charles II with restored or later stand, 6,000-8,500.
Chest on low stand with oyster veneer and fine inlay, $4,500-6,500.
As above, but on restored or later stand, 3,500-4,500.

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.

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.