Antique Oak Chest of Drawers between £0 and £0
A stack of drawers in oak, made from the 17th century onward for clothes and linen, and the everyday English answer to the lidded chest it replaced.
What They Are
The chest of drawers grew out of the coffer in 17th-century England, swapping a lift lid for stacked drawers you could reach one at a time. Oak was the standard English cabinet timber before walnut and mahogany took over in fashion, and it stayed the everyday wood for country and provincial work long after.
The chest you meet most on Sellingantiques is a straight-fronted English one, described by reign or century rather than by shape. Georgian appears in 367 titles and 18th century in 317, with 153 claiming the 17th. Four or five drawers, three-over-two or two-over-three, made for a bedroom.
Small is the commonest qualifier of all, in 242 titles against 65 that say large. Stated widths run down to 78cm and "only 34 inches". Beyond the English country strand sit early 20th-century bedroom oak, dated tightly to the 1920s and 1930s, and a French population of carved and bleached commodes, 113 titles using the word commode.
Two-part pieces are close to one in eight: chest-on-chest, tallboy, chest-on-stand. A smaller but steady group isn't bedroom furniture at all - Wellington chests, plan chests, printers' and filing banks, one of fifteen drawers and another of twelve, and brass-bound military campaign chests in two pieces.
Where The Range Splits
Age does most of the work. Charles II, William and Mary, Jacobean and late 17th-century titles cluster at the upper part of the range, and the very top is held by 17th and early 18th-century chest-on-stands combining oak with walnut, burr elm or burr yew. The 1920s, 1930s and Edwardian bedroom chests fill the bottom.
Within any period, size and front do the rest. Small proportions push a piece up, which is why "dwarf", "miniature" and a narrow stated width keep company with the higher-priced period examples. So does a worked front: geometric mouldings in 45 titles, carving in 76, serpentine in 25, with block-front, olive oyster and marquetry at the top end. Plain and straight sits lower.
Timber beyond the oak counts too. Walnut appears in 67 titles, mahogany in 94, crossbanding in 23, and burr oak, pollard oak, burr elm, burr yew, fruitwood and snakewood turn up on individual pieces. In the 20th-century group, a label lifts a chest: 61 titles say labelled, and named ranges and model numbers attach to that upper end.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for oak chest of drawers between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The most expensive oak chest of drawers ever sold on Sellingantiques was a 17th century William & Mary burr elm, walnut and oak chest on stand, in January 2024.
The Antique Oak Chest of Drawers between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Chest on chest
- Two chests stacked as one tall unit, also called a tallboy; 48 titles use the word tallboy.
- Chest on stand
- A drawered chest raised on an open-legged base, usually early 18th century in this archive, and the form that holds the top of the range.
- Straight front
- Flat-fronted, as against bow, serpentine or bombé. The default, and dealers often state it anyway.
- Geometric or moulded front
- Applied mouldings forming panels on the drawer fronts, recurring on 17th-century chests; geometric appears in 45 titles.
- Oak lined
- Oak used for the drawer linings of a chest made or veneered in another wood, which is why a mahogany chest can sit under this heading; 31 titles say lined.
- Wellington chest
- Tall narrow chest of many small drawers with a hinged locking pilaster; 69 titles, from seven drawers up to a twelve-drawer Victorian one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old are oak chests of drawers?
The dealer date field runs from 1690 to 1950. Only 790 of 2,372 listings commit to a clean year, so two-thirds carry a loose label instead.
The earliest dated examples are late 17th-century Charles II and William and Mary chests, described as circa 1660 to 1690. At the other end, 1920s and 1930s bedroom oak is dated tightly and in quantity.
Why are mahogany chests in this category?
Because oak covers two things. Solid English country oak, and oak used as a secondary or lining timber in a chest made in another wood.
That's how a title like "Georgian mahogany oak lined chest of drawers" sits beside solid oak examples. Thirty-one titles say lined.
What does Georgian mean on these listings?
Treat it as a range rather than a date. Georgian fills 348 entries in the period field and 18th Century 403, and the two overlap heavily; 19th Century, Victorian and 1800s describe much the same ground as each other.
Where a title reads c1780 or circa 1680, the dealer has committed to a year. Several titles also carry a period word that disagrees with the field, an 18th-century chest filed as Regency among them.
Are French oak chests common?
They're roughly one in twelve of the archive. French appears in 175 titles, commode in 113, bleached in 63 and serpentine in 25, often carved and sometimes marble-topped.
Other Continental origins are much scarcer: single Dutch, Belgian, Scandinavian Baroque, Franco-Flemish and Anglo-Indian chests, including one Dutch bombé marquetry example.
Do these chests carry regional attributions?
Rarely, but specifically. Welsh turns up in 31 titles, along with single Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Scottish and North Country chests.
One Welsh tallboy carries a carved date of 1833.
How many are for sale at once?
Around 264 oak chests of drawers are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, spread across 249 different dealers.
That's close to one dealer for every ten pieces, which makes it one of the most widely stocked furniture forms on the site.