Antique Style Chest Drawers
When choosing an antique style chest drawers, collectors seek period forms that combine practical storage with classical proportions.
Antique Style Chest Drawers
The selection ranges from tallboys and upright chests to serpentine commodes and campaign styles, drawing on English, French and Continental cabinet-making traditions.
Buyers frequently encounter mahogany and walnut constructions from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries alongside oak examples influenced by Jacobean and Arts and Crafts designs.
Materials and Construction
Cabinet-makers relied primarily on solid timbers and veneers of mahogany, walnut and oak, often enhancing surfaces with burr walnut figuring, marquetry or crossbanding.
Hardware typically involves brass handles, escutcheons and mounts, while specialised forms integrate marble tops or leather-lined brushing slides into the wooden frame.
Apprentice pieces allowed young woodworkers to demonstrate their mastery by fashioning miniature chests before joining the trade guild.
Assessing Quality
Distinction in these pieces rests on the choice of timber veneer, the precision of the marquetry or inlay, and the fluidity of serpentine or bow-fronted shaping.
Finer examples display careful attention to drawer construction and the integration of decorative elements such as gilt-bronze mounts or carved linenfold panelling.
Whytock and Reid·Army and Navy CSL
The Antique Style Chest Drawers Glossary
- Serpentine
- A gently undulating front curve convex at the sides and concave in the centre, often seen on finer commodes.
- Tallboy
- A tall chest of drawers typically constructed in two sections, placing a smaller set of drawers atop a larger base.
- Marquetry
- The art of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns and pictorial designs.
- Brushing slide
- A pull-out wooden shelf integrated into the upper section of a chest to serve as a temporary writing or sorting surface.
- Campaign style
- Portable furniture built in sections with recessed brass hardware, originally designed for military officers on the move.
Antique Style Chest Drawers: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a tallboy chest?
A tallboy is a vertical storage piece that stacks one set of drawers above another, creating significant capacity with a minimal floor footprint.
Cabinet-makers built these taller formats from the eighteenth century onward in mahogany, walnut and oak to maximise bedroom storage.
What is a brushing slide used for?
A brushing slide is a pull-out board integrated just below the top surface of a chest of drawers.
Historically, owners used this surface for brushing clothing or writing letters without needing a separate desk.
Where were campaign chests used?
Campaign chests were constructed in sectional halves with inset brass handles for transport during military campaigns.
Officers utilised these sturdy timber units to move their personal belongings across remote outposts.