How do I care for the veneer?

Keep the cabinet away from direct heat. Radiators dry out the air and cause the hide glue to fail. Use a good microcrystalline wax sparingly once a year. Buff it gently with a soft cloth so you don't build up sticky layers.

We inherited one of these from my grandmother and it smells very musty inside the drawers, what can we do to safely remove the odour?

Air circulation is your best starting point. Remove all the drawers on a dry day and let them sit in a well-ventilated room out of direct sunlight. Some dealers place a small bowl of dry bicarbonate of soda inside the closed carcase for a week. This absorbs lingering smells without introducing moisture to the old wood. Never use modern chemical sprays. The damp mist can warp thin drawer linings and damage original finishes.

Why are the handles mismatched?

Handles endure heavy physical stress. Over centuries of daily pulling, the brass pins snap or backplates crack. Cabinet makers often replaced a whole set if they couldn't find a matching spare. It's very common to find Victorian hardware on an earlier Georgian carcase.

I was looking at the back of my cabinet and the boards seem quite rough and uneven compared to the front, is this normal?

Workshops spent no time finishing surfaces that sat against a wall. The backboards were left rough from the pit saw. This saved both time and money. The craftsmen focused their expensive materials entirely on the visible surfaces.

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Antique Walnut Cabinets in East of England

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These tall storage pieces usually feature figured veneers laid over a solid carcase, designed originally to house documents or textiles in wealthy seventeenth and eighteenth-century homes.