Chest of drawers

“ Letter C shows the earliest styles of handles with the bail fastened into bolts which screw into the drawer. Letters D, E, and F give the succeeding styles of brass handles, the design growing more elaborate and increasing in size. These are found upon desks, chests of drawers, commodes, and other pieces of furniture of the Chippendale period.
The earliest form of high chest of drawers had six turned legs, four in front and two in the back, with stretchers between the legs, and was of Dutch origin, as well as the high chest with bandy or cabriole legs, which was some [23] years later in date. ”

“ It belongs to the Waring Galleries, London. Two drawers followed one, the chest portion still retaining its prominence, and in this simple way the chest of drawers grew from the box-like affair of 1600 and [Pg 20] later. By 1710 chests were looked upon as "old," and so advertised for sale, although they continued to be made until the middle of the eighteenth century. They were too useful to be abandoned by a people who were obliged to be often on the move, and who needed some stout receptacle in which to carry their household and personal goods. ”

“ It was the bottom drawer of a cheap pine chest that I had bought in Whitechapel High Street. That chest of drawers was of unusual size; it was four feet wide by nearly five feet high, and the two bottom drawers were each fully eighteen inches deep, and were far larger than was necessary for my modest stock of household linen.
"I pulled out the bottom drawer, then, and as its great cavity yawned before me, it offered a not unnatural suggestion. The length of an average man's head and trunk is under thirty-six inches. ”

“ I have gone beyond those "Jacobean" fellows; I can make drawers so accurately, so exquisitely fitted, that they no longer need grooves, and move as well as though they had them. And he was justified. A beautiful eighteenth-century chest of drawers really is almost as easy to manipulate as my "Jacobean" chest. One realises that the device of grooves, ingenious and successful as it was, rested on an imperfection; it was evidently an effort to overcome the crude and heavy work of earlier imperfect craftsmen.
There is evolution in the vital progress of furniture as in all other vital progress. ”

“ A most necessary piece of furniture which every housekeeper endeavoured to own was some form of "highboy," as it has come to be called, or a chest-on chest of drawers. Figure 64 depicts a fair example of the highest style of perfection to which these articles reached. Few are found more ornate than this. The wood is mahogany, and is richly carved on the knees, with the upper and lower drawers ornamented with shell and scrolls. The escutcheons and handles are original, and the only defect is the loss of the two ornaments which decorated either side of the top. ”

“ Chests of drawers appear in inventories about [18] 1645. They were usually made of oak and were similar in design to the chests of that period.
The oak chest of drawers in Illustration 9 is owned by E. R. Lemon, Esq., of the Wayside Inn, Sudbury. It has four drawers, and the decoration is simply panelling. The feet are the large balls which were used upon chests finished with a deep moulding at the lower edge. ”

“ In America we connect the term with a piece of furniture designed to hold articles of clothing in its various drawers. It was somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century that the drawer was added to the lower part of the chest. Later in the century further drawer capacity was developed, and by the beginning of the next we find the complete chest of drawers in use. In view of this we shall not expect to find Jacobean desks, though we may find cabinets for writing-materials and documents and even occasional desk-like pieces. ”

“ The looking-glass made one look horrible, and the handles were off the chest of drawers, so one had to pull the drawers out with a crooked hairpin.
I minded the picture more than anything. Some girls would have grumbled at the chest of drawers, and never thought of the picture, but I have always loved beautiful things, so I suppose that is the reason why I grumbled so much at the picture and so little at the other thing. ”

“ It is easy to see that the original idea must have been taken from a common portable chest of drawers, such as officers use. The slight alteration in its arrangement is owing to Japanese common sense and observation, for it would have required more strength of character than a cockney upholsterer possesses, to divide one of the parts so unequally as in this illustration. But the male heart will be sure to delight specially in that one deep drawer for shirts, and the shallow one at the top for collars, pockethandkerchiefs, neckties, and so forth. ”

“ The wind actually stirred the cloth on the chest of drawers, and let in a little light, so that the sharp edge of the chest of drawers was visible, running straight up, until a white shape bulged out; and a silver streak showed in the looking-glass. ”

“ At a later period, the chest was placed on a frame of short square legs. The next development was the addition of a long drawer below the chest. Another drawer was added, and another, until this piece of furniture gradually became, instead of a simple box or trunk, a “chest-of-drawers,” a “chest-with-drawers,” a “nest-of-drawers,” a “case-of-drawers,” a “press,” a “cupboard-press,” etc., etc. The bureau, or desk, or “screetore,” is another development; and, of course, the cabinet in its simplest form is nothing but a chest-of-drawers with shelves inside shut in by doors. ”

“ “It must be the top drawer,” he reflected. “So she carries the keys in a pocket on the right. All in one bunch on a steel ring.... And there’s one key there, three times as big as all the others, with deep notches; that can’t be the key of the chest of drawers... then there must be some other chest or strong-box... that’s worth knowing. Strong-boxes always have keys like that... but how degrading it all is.” ”

“ A moulding incised with cuts edges the top slab. The chest-of-drawers stands on four turned knobs or balls. A specimen handle and key-plate of the period appropriate for chest, chest-of-drawers, or cabinet are No. 5 and No. 6 on Plate X. The case-of-drawers is also found in the bedroom, where the other furniture includes a dressing-table and glass, tables, chairs and stools, very often a cupboard, sometimes a desk or “screetore,” and always plenty of cushions. ”

“ Opposite this chest of drawers, on the lady's side of the room, is a cupboard. The presence of a row of gentleman's boots beside the chest of drawers proclaims that the lady is married. Her own boots are beside the cupboard. ”

“ Another ladies’ dressing-table is a simple table, the slab of which lifts up or can be opened out. In the centre of it is the dressing-glass which can be made to rise and stand. Around it are little compartments for articles of the toilet. Then he makes also what he calls dressing-drawers. This is an “ordinary chest-of-drawers, one drawer of which is fitted up as a dressing-drawer.” Some varieties have serpentine fronts. Two of his mahogany bason-stands appear as Nos. 1 and 2 on Plate LV. Hanging-shelves for books or china are made of mahogany and are suitable for ladies’ rooms. ”

“ The opposite side of the cube was composed of a chest of drawers. I am not impertinently curious by nature, but as I was the first-floor lodger, bethought myself entitled to open the top long drawer with a view to the bestowal of the contents of my black bag. ”

“ Take the common male chest of drawers as a case in point. Its function is to hold a man's shirts and his clothes, articles of a known and constant size. Why are the drawers not made proportionate for their duty? Why are they so few and so deep that when filled—as they needs must be—they are uneasy to draw out, and to obtain the particular article of which we are in quest, and which of course is at the bottom, we must burrow into the heavy super-incumbent{286} mass of clothes in our search, and—that successful—spend a weary while in contriving to repack the ill-disposed space. ”

“ There are also set out with the bottles certain heart-shaped velvet pincushions, made by the sailors, and considered as decorations of the highest æsthetic value. The chest of drawers is used for the clothes of the family—the slender supplement of what is on the family back. It is also the storehouse for everything that belongs to the daily life. ”

“ PLATE IX. Top—Hepplewhite Serpentine Chest of Drawers—Mahogany. (South Carolina—c. 1790) . This finely inlaid mahogany chest of drawers shows the serpentine front with French feet. The matched veneered front is the work of a skilled craftsman. (Property of Mrs. J. G. Hayes) .
PLATE IX. Bottom—Hepplewhite Serpentine Chest of Drawers—Walnut. (North Carolina—c. 1790) . In this chest of drawers the local workman used native walnut, and cut the drawer fronts from the solid wood. The majority of four-drawer chests in walnut with straight front are found with solid drawer fronts. ”

“ This type was often ornamented with rich carving, and sometimes it was arranged upon legs, with a shelf beneath.
The form in common use about 1700 was known as the "scrutoir," being in reality a desk resting on a chest of drawers; the sloping front opened on hinges, and afforded a writing desk. One example of this type, fitted with ball feet, and showing [Pg 111] secret drawers and many cupboards, is found in the Ropes house in Salem, being an inheritance from the original owner, General Israel Putnam. ”

“ The date of this chest of drawers is anywhere from 1750 to about 1780, the overlapping drawers making it more likely to approximate the earlier date. Belonging to about the same period is the corner cupboard shown in Figure 65. This is of cherry, with the broken arch-cornice and Gothic door. It has turned posts with rosettes which Sheraton often used, and the cupboard doors overlap and are panelled. ”

“ The white-washed wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnished clock that clicked behind the door;
The chest contrived a double debt to pay,
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day; ”

“ I may be a slow starter, but I am very firm when roused. I went into the shop, wrote a cheque for the three chests of drawers, and told the man where to send them. When I returned, Celia was at the shop opposite, pulling the drawers out of a real old mahogany chest which was standing on the pavement outside. ”

“ The veneer is of richly figured walnut banded with herring-bone inlay. It is furnished with brass handles and engraved escutcheons.
[70]
We begin to see how increasing wealth in clothes called for more commodious furniture. This piece has six drawers in the upper carcase in addition to the five small ones in the stand: altogether a very considerable storage capacity as compared with the dumpy chests of drawers of earlier make.
By easy stages we arrive at the tallboy pure and simple, sometimes called "double chest" or "chest on chest." The term "tall" is obvious, but "boy" is not so clear. ”

“ WARDROBE, a portable upright cupboard for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the sumptuous apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with cupboards and lockers—the drawer is a comparatively modern invention. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, was slowly evolved. ”

“ A very ingenious way to have a drawer close automatically is to attach a weight so that the rope or cord will pull on the rear end of the drawer. The sketch clearly shows the device which is an attachment similar to that used for closing gates. This can be applied to drawers that are frequently drawn out and in places where a person is liable to have the hands full. ”

“ Many of our most beautiful old Indian chests of drawers and cabinets have this black ground with quaintest bronze or brazen clamps and hinges, locks and handles, to give relief to the sombre groundwork. Except that the drawers seldom open well, and are nearly always inconveniently small, they are the most beautiful things in the world for keeping clothes in, but it would certainly be as well to have, out of the room in a passage, some more commodious and commonplace receptacles. ”

“ In all the desks shown, the pillars at each side of the middle door in the interior pull out as drawers. These were supposed to be secret drawers. Often the little arched pieces above the pigeonholes are drawer fronts. The middle compartment is sometimes a drawer, or if it has a door, behind this door is a drawer which, when taken entirely out, proves to have a secret drawer opening from its back. Occasionally an opening to a secret compartment is found in the back of the desk. ”

“ These should be taken out of the drawer and laid on a table when being handled. The drawers for the smaller sizes should be box-shaped, with sides cut down somewhat to allow the prints to be easily turned. ”

“ The fronts should be of oak, but the other parts of yellow poplar. An examination of an ordinary drawer will show the manner of construction.
Make the frame of the pigeon holes of 3/16-in. yellow poplar. The drawing shows an arrangement entirely independent of the sides of the desk so that the frame can be made and slipped in place after the finish has been put on. Two drawers are shown. These are faced front and back alike so as to secure as much room in the drawer as possible.
In the finishing, the poplar wood should be finished with white shellac in the natural light color of the wood. ”