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 [...]
CHESTS serpentine, 1770-1800
A fine quality serpentine mahogany chest with canted fluted corners, a slide and bracket feet. The handles are possibly original. 1770-1780
A Sheraton design mahogany serpentine chest featuring inlaid shell motifs and boxwood and ebony stringing lines. The plate handles may be original. Note the heavy bracket feet.
1780-1800
A mahogany serpentine chest of drawers without [...]
CHESTS bow-fronted mahogany, 1780 onwards
A late eighteenth century example with brushing slide showing fine use of the mahogany grain to provide the maximum decorative effect. Note the bottom moulding which soon disappeared, and the use of needed top moulding which started with Sheraton but came into wide use in Regency times. The splayed feet add [...]
CHESTS 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 [...]
Serpentine chest of drawers
Curving shapes began to come into furniture design from the reign of Queen Anne onwards, as can be seen from the pediments of secretaire bookcases and, in particular, the spoon-back chair with cabriole legs. Techniques of cutting wood into curved shapes took time to master, and it was not until the Chippendale [...]
18th Century American Chests of Drawers
Not long after the American Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on 4 July, 1776, the Revolutionary War began in earnest. While the colonists fought for their independence they had neither the energy nor the enthusiasm to keep up with British fashions, as they had in the past. And so, [...]