How many come up for sale each year?

Around 83 inlaid chests of drawers are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, and 185 different dealers have handled one. That is among the widest dealer bases of any single furniture form on the site. So the supply is steady rather than concentrated in a handful of specialists.

What period do they date from?

The dated field runs from 1700 to 1960. A handful of sampled pieces are attributed earlier still, the earliest reading circa 1660, circa 1680 and circa 1690. Only 273 of 756 listings carry a clean year. The largest groups are broad buckets instead: 19th Century, Georgian, 18th Century. The same chest may be filed under a reign or under a decade tag such as 1800s or 1920s. Nothing in the archive is later than 1960.

Is mahogany the usual timber?

Mahogany is named in 356 of 756 titles, so it is the timber you meet most often, usually on an English chest of three to five drawers. Walnut follows, in around one title in seven, and it dominates the top of the range through William and Mary, Queen Anne and George I marquetry and oyster-veneered chests. Satinwood, kingwood, rosewood, amboyna, laburnum, olive wood and harewood all appear too.

What does commode mean in these titles?

It is the Continental chest of drawers, generally shaped and often fitted with a marble top. The word appears in 142 titles, and 65 of those name the marble. French is the commonest origin in that group, with Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Spanish, German and Austrian examples also named.

Which forms other than plain chests turn up?

Tallboys, chest-on-chests, chests on stands, pillar chests, Wellington chests, secretaire chests, semainiers and campaign chests all appear as a steady minor stream. Small chests are named in 51 titles, and miniature or apprentice-scale examples surface now and then in amboyna, satinwood and marquetry, one of them dated on the piece itself to 1907.

Do pairs of inlaid chests exist?

Nineteen titles offer pairs or near-pairs. Matched chests are unusual enough that dealers put the word in the title whenever they have them. Everything else in the category is sold singly.

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Inlaid Chest of Drawers

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A chest of drawers whose surfaces carry decorative inlay, from a single line of boxwood stringing to full floral marquetry, made to hold clothes and linen.