Images(10)

Chest of Drawers

Dateca. 1770

OriginEngland

MediumMahogany, oak, deal, brass, glass

DimensionsOverall: 31 1/2 × 36 × 22 1/2in. (80 × 91.4 × 57.2cm)

Credit LineGift of Robert Iverson

Object number2022-33

DescriptionAppearance: Chest of drawers with overhanging rectangular top with molded edge on front and sides; four graduated drawers with cockbeaded edges; drawers have two bail and rosette brass drawer pulls and rococo brass keyhole escutcheons (all appear to be original); second drawer from top flanked by full height lopers with brass pulls (replaced); top drawer fitted with central rectangular looking glass with angled support and numerous compartments, including three with lidded boxes on the proper left flanking glass; ink well compartment hinges outward from proper left side of top drawer; ogee base molding and straight bracket feet.

Construction:
Bottom board half blind dovetailed to case sides; top attached to sides with sliding dovetails; vertical backboards nailed in rabbets in sides, top, and to back edge of bottom board; mahogany drawer blades in dados in case sides; front edge of case sides and drawer blades covered in veneer; full depth deal dust boards, thinner than drawer blades, are in correspondingly thinner dadoes in the case sides and tongue and groove joined to rear of drawer blades with joint reinforced with chamfered rectangular glue blocks; drawer stops nailed to tops of drawer blades; vertical dividers joined sliding dovetail or in dado to underside of top drawer blade and top of second drawer blade; top drawer blade is notched at ends to receive top, angled portion of loper when inserted into chest; lopers have modern rectangular stops screwed to inside faces; lower loper and drawer guides glued to top of dust board behind vertical dividers; upper loper guide glued to underside of top dust board at side of case; loper has small angled extension glued to top at front end; loper end below extension cockbeaded with cockbead in rabbets around loper facade; deal boards (segmented or multiple on each side) attached to underside of case bottom around front, sides, and ends of back; base molding nailed to edge of case side and edges of added boards around bottom; bracket feet glued below base molding backed by large vertical, chamfered oak glue block flanked by smaller horizontal shaped and chamfered oak glue blocks; rear facing oak foot bracket angled and likely glued to back of side facing rear bracket (reinforced with modern nails from side bracket).

Drawers are of standard dovetail construction; front to back oriented bottom boards set in rabbets in sides and nailed in rabbets in front and to underside of drawer back; full length runners glued to bottom at sides and front, angled cut at rear; drawer fronts have mitered cockbead molding glued and nailed in rabbets around drawer façades; tops of drawer sides rounded; each drawer has two bail and rosette drawer pulls and a central rococo escutcheon and mortised brass lock (escutcheons original; some of rosettes replaced)

Fitted top drawer entirely of mahogany unless specified below: writing slide has extensions at sides that slides in groove in interior of drawer sides near top; construction of writing slide not determined as it cannot be removed from drawer (top drawer has a stop that prevents it from being removed from case) but appears to be a framework, possibly mortised and tenoned or lapped, with a central possibly oak panel upholstered in leather; interior drawer dividers in dados in drawer front, sides, and back, and into each other; central mirrored element slides towards rear and rests on shoulder of rabbet (or lathe glued to inside face of divider) in central front to back oriented dividers; some element is tenoned through the central dividers about half way towards rear and may act as a stop to prevent mirrored element from being removed; sliding mirrored panel constructed as a frame with lapped joints at corners, mitered veneered facing glued to top of frame; oak bottom board possibly nailed into rabbets on underside of frame; mirror has a mahogany lapped frame with a mahogany mitered facing glued to façade; back of mirror relieved on upper half for hinged support to be flush with lower portion of back when folded closed (wood left along back at top to correspond to shaped feet of support); hinged support which is lap joined and hinged to mirror with butt hinges supports mirror when upright in notches in oak bottom board of mirrored panel; mirror hinged to front interior edge of panel frame with butt hinges.

Small mahogany boxes in top drawer: box sides are miter joined with spline at top corners; bottoms glued in rabbets in underside of sides; lid constructed with sides glued into rabbets in underside of top; thinner mahogany, taller than lid sides, glued to interior faces of sides; all corners of lid mitered.

Ink well, constructed entirely of mahogany, inset into proper left side of drawer; half-blind dovetailed at front corners and dovetailed at rear, like a drawer with bottom set into rabbet in all members; interior dividers in dados in sides, and back; drawer rotates on a round tenon (construction not visible).
Label TextThis English chest of drawers has a dressing drawer fitted with a writing slide as well as a looking glass and compartments in the top drawer. Dressing chests were popular in England and America and the drawer compartments were illustrated by furniture design books of the period including Thomas Chippendale’s THE GENTLEMAN AND CABINETMAKER’S DIRECTOR (London, 1962), pl. LII. While only a small number of such dressing chests survive in America, examples are known from New York and Charleston, suggesting a strong British influence.
Inscribed“10955” in ink on underside of one drawer.
ProvenanceDonor may have purchased chest from Caledonian, Inc (Importers of Fine English Furniture) of Winnetka, IL.