Antique English Dressers - Charles II period small oak dresser - 17th Century oak dresser - fruitwood dresser of the early 18th century on cabriole legs -  English country dresser - oak dresser with upper shelves and single cupboard door - Queen Anne mahogany cupboarded oak dresser with drawers

The demarcation between antique cupboards and antique dressers in the 17th century is somewhat difficult to define, particularly where the lower portion is enclosed by doors. About 1650 and afterwards it was common to have  dressers which were without the upper superstructure although sometimes shelves may have been fastened to the wall above. Naturally these dressers reflected the style of the period as far as drawer decoration and leg turning was concerned. In country districts dressers were made by local craftsmen on throughout the 18th century long after they had ceased to be fashionable in town houses. In this waythe cabriole leg continued to appear on dressers when it had disappeared on other town-made furniture. In the second half of the 18th century side cupboards were included in the upper half and the top cornice carried mouldings copied from more refined furniture, such as dentil friezes. The dresser does not appear to have developed much beyond this period; since it has long been relegated to a piece of kitchen furniture it may have been neglected stylistically for this reason.
The prices given are assuming good structural condition and originality. No pine dressers are shown and it must be emphasized that pine dressers are generally late in date and less than half the oak prices shown.

A fine Charles II period small oak dresser. The drawers illustrate the geometrical mouldings found on chests of the period-the swan-neck handles are a replacement and simple pear-drops or pulls would have been more likely. The legs show a fine example of Restoration turning with inverted cup and baluster forms. Although the legs finish square in section as though to take stretchers, these were not originally fitted. The top edge surface shows a simple thumb nail moulding and the cornice beneath shows a fine bold concave form.
Value points: Small Size - 5ft to 6ft long  Quality of leg turning  Drawer mouldings  Colour and patination  Original handles

Another fine larger oak dresser of c. 1680. The drawers show the same form as the previous example, with mitred decorative mouldings, but applied split baluster forms decorate the frame at the sides and between
them. The legs show fine column turning of the same form as our gate-leg table illustrated in that section. Again the legs are squared above the turned feet as though to take stretcher joints, but in fact stretchers are
only fitted at the side.
Value points: Size - length 6ft or under  Colour and patination
Quality of drawer mouldings  Quality of leg turning
Original handles

A fruitwood dresser of the early 18th century. The drawers show a simpler form of the earlier moulded panels but the top edge mouldings retain the same form. The cupboard door panels are also moulded with mock drawer fronts in the top half to retain proportion.
Value points: Fruitwood
Colour and patination  Quality of mouldings  Original handles

A rathermore countrified dresser of the early 18th century showing very simple leg turning. The shaped apron with projecting lip moulding follows that of side table styles of the period. The drawer fronts are very simple but there is a form of cock bead around them on the frame. The top edge has a simple thumb-nail moulding.
Value points: Size - 7ft wide or under … Colour and patination
Quality of mouldings
Original handles

An oak dresser of c. 1725 with upper shelves. The top cornice has an ogee moulding and shaped frieze beneath. The door panels are fielded and shaped,with the solid panel between them repeating this form. The drawers are simple, with no moulding, but the frame around them and the cupboard doors show a simple moulded edge. Note the panelled side to the lower section.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Fielded door panels  Original handles
Quality of mouldings

An oak dresser of c. 1725 also, but without the upper structure. The cupboard doors are again fielded and shaped. There is also the same moulded edge form on the frame around doors and drawers. The latter are simple; the handles are not original. Note that the sides are panelled; a form found on chests of drawers of the previous century.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination Quality of mouldings  Original handles

A much simpler and cruder oak dresser of the early 18th century with simple single cupboard door. There is a simple thumb-nail moulding round the top edge and the frame also has a simple moulding around drawers
and panel edges.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Quality of mouldings  Original handles

An oak dresser of mid-18th century period on cabriole legs. The upper part is fitted with three spice drawers, which adds to value. The top edge moulding is rather more sophisticated and the drawers have an ovolo lip moulding around the edge to lap over the carcase frame. The cabriole legs are well shaped ending in a pad foot.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Spice drawers
cabriole legs
Original handles

An oak dresser of mid-18th century. The top cornice shows a dentillated section in the moulding with a shaped frieze beneath. The side cupboard doors are panelled and moulded. The drawers are cock beaded and the swan-neck handles are possibly original. The shaped apron repeats the curves of the top frieze. It is interesting to note the C scroll behind the knee on the cabriole legs - a sign of quality coming from cabrioles of the Queen Anne period.
Value points: Small Size
cabriole legs
Colour and patination  Quality of mouldings  Shaped apron and frieze

A cupboarded oak dresser of mid-18th century with fielded panels in doors and drawers. The cupboards on either side of the upper structure have a spice drawer beneath. The whole form of construction dates from a much earlier period, showing how country craftsmen retained these methods long after they were superseded elsewhere.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Spice drawers
Original handles

A later 18th century oak dresser with drawers cross banded in mahogany. The top cornice is well moulded and the row of spice drawers in the upper section adds greatly to value. The cross banded drawers are cock
beaded and it can be seen that small drawers have been let into the frieze. The ‘gallery’ beneath with its useful floor-level shelf was used for larger kitchen utensils and pots,
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Spice drawers
Original handles
Quality of leg turning

A Welsh oak dresser of last quarter of the 18th century. Note that the drawers are cock-beaded and that the shaped central apron reflects a form of much earlier origin. The apron is also cock-beaded like some Queen Anne forms. The panelled or boarded-in back gives a heavier appearance and it is well to remember that many may have had this removed.
Value points: Small Size
Colour and patination  Original handles

English Dresser

In the late sixteenth century, while wealthy households separated their dining rooms from the large hall and displayed their fine plate and porcelain on impressive court cupboards in their parlours, yeomen farmers moved to brick-built farmhouses with fewer rooms and servants. In their parlours were ’side boordes’ - long shallow tables with a single row of drawers and a boarded base.
By the turn of the eighteenth century these elongated side-tables had found a place in country manor houses. They were elegant pieces of furniture, usually in gleaming polished oak, with shining    handles and escutcheons. In the North of England, they had storage cupboards in the base, either with a central flight of three or four drawers, or with a  central cupboard flanked by two of drawers, made in elm, oak and elm, and sometimes in ash.
In the southern counties, often a separate set of hanging shelves was fixed above the dresser base. In. the North, solid shelves with backs seem to have been more common. Late eighteenth century oak dressers
with fixed shelving    no backs were often handsome pieces. However, by the end of the century, most dressers had been relegated to the kitchen, and by the nineteenth century were made in cheap soft pine as part of built-in cupboards and shelving.
Signs of authenticity
1. Timber of’sides with grain running horizontal, on dressers with frieze drawers only.
2. if dresser has cupboards or drawers, the sides are often in more than one p,)m,d .”o.- extra strength and stabilitv,
3. Simple curving slhope,, to frieze and apron, in wood of matching colour and patination.
4. All parts showing signs of heavy use and wear: build-up of grease and dirt on plate-stays, grooves, top corners of cupboards, around drawer handles.
5. Signs of ‘distressing’ on base boards: dents, scratches, where heavy pots and pans have been dragged over surface.
6. Mortise-and-tenon joints of shelves running through
uprights to show as thin rectangular shapes on the outer surface of the upright.
7. Accumulation of dirt colouring inner surface and underside of top frieze, and on top of dresser shelving*.
8. Deep patination on sides of drawers, marks of knife-points, sharp instruments, on insides of drawers.
9. Bases well-used, with signs of `fraying’ on block feet from damp, knocking with mops and brooms.
10. Dresser shelves and backboards of same-aged timber as base, on to which it fitted.
Likely restoration and  backboards have been added, they are usually of even width, commercially cut timber, wire-brushed down the grain and polished to look old.
12. Whole tops added to dresser bases - may be a period addition or a more recent one, to add value.
13. Added friezes and aprons to increase value - saw-marks can be felt on unfinished underside, timber will not be as hard and seasoned as original timbers.
14. New base boards and inspect closely for other repall-S, such as new underframe.
15. If there are board-backs to bases with frieze drawers, suspect, new legs and aprons where original doors and drawers have been too badly damaged to restore and have been removed.
Construction and materials
In all but a very few pieces, dresser construction lagged considerably behind more sophisticated pieces of furniture, and drawers were made with thick through-dovetails, projecting lip moulding and simple rebate joints reinforced with coarse iron nails from the local smithy. Mortise-and-tenon joints continued to be used with wooden pegs or dowels long after brass screws were common on most furniture. There was probably also a practical reason for this traditional form of construction. In the constantly changing temperature and condensation of the kitchen, with consequent continuous movement of timber. it would have served far better than later methods of construction.
Dressers were made in oak, finely finished and without fixed shelving from c.1690 onwards, sometimes much in the style of contemporary chests of drawers, with fielded and coffered doors, drawers, reeded and mitred mouldings and twist-turned legs or baluster-turned legs. By the early eighteenth century some had well-fitted shelving units with small spice cupboards and grooves or plate-stays.
Between c.1690 and 1710 some grander dressers heralded the shape of sideboards, with a raised backboard, sometimes with shelves or small drawers. From the mid-eighteenth century, shelving above the dresser base became an integral part of the design, though these seldom had backboards.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Oak dressers were reproduced during the Victorian period in commercial plank oak, usually stained. Some of the more interesting pieces date from the end of the nineteenth century and were made by the Arts and Crafts Movement as all-purpose pieces of furniture. They are closer to sideboards than dressers in concept.
By the end of the nineteenth century all kinds of kitchen cupboards were built into the large service quarters of Victorian houses, some with glass-fronted doors with cupboards or drawers beneath; some with open shelves and cupboards. Many of these have been neatly converted into ,antique pine dressers’, stripped of their many layers of paint.
Pine
The ubiquitous pine dresser was first made as a built-in piece of furniture destined to be painted from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. By the end of the century it was being made in smaller, more finished versions for use in farm houses and townhouse kitchens.
Price bands
Dresser, with decorative frieze, potboard, turned legs, excellent quality, late eighteenth century, $2,500–4,000.
Good oak with decorative canopy. c.1820, $1,200-1,500.
North Welsh, oak, enclosed, c.1850, $1,500-2,200.
Cottage oak, with potboard and simple legs, c.1820, $900-1.200.
Simple pine, 1840, $.350-450.
Variations
Regional styles
Most dressers were country-made, in varying degrees of skill and craftsmanship. Most interesting are the regional variations, such as the `Welsh dresser’ proper (as opposed to the tridarn and the deuddarn) from South Wales with elaborately pierced and fretted aprons and friezes. Southern dressers without backboards could stand flush against a brick-built wall. North country dressers with backboards stood against rough-cast or stone walls. North Wales dressers often had a pair of cupboards below three frieze drawers in the base, as opposed to the North country dressers with cupboards and one or two flights of drawers.
Countless kitchen dressers were built by the resident carpenters on large estates for all the tenant farms, frequently of a very high standard of design and craftsmanship, often using odd pieces of fruitwood or fine timber left over in their workshops from panelling and boarding from the `Big House’. These may date from the last two decades of the eighteenth century up to the beginning of the twentieth.
Below: North Country pine
dresser, with two fielded panelled doors in the base, and panelled sides. The shelves are tenoned through the shaped side-pieces which support the simply
moulded canopy.

DRESSERS  drawers under, no superstructure
A dramatic piece with the moulded three-drawer form we saw in the previous section plus two extra cupboards below. The heavy top moulding, the geometric moulding on the cushion-shaped drawer fronts and the applied split baluster pieces on the cleverly arranged centre panel suggest an early date. c. 1680
A typical dresser from the West Midlands made over a long period of time in the country and therefore hard to date. The side is panelled and decorated with scratch moulding, and the feet are formed as a simple
continuation of the end stiles. The doors have arched shaped panels constructed in the traditional manner. There is a scratch moulding round the frames into which the drawers fit  a simulation of cockbeading.
c. 1750
A fruitwood example dated towards the end of the eighteenth century though it exhibits many early features. The two end drawers are false, no doubt a concession to the view that a dresser should have a row of
drawers in line under the top board. There is still the feeling that a good bold moulding is needed and two appear at the top and bottom. The ends are panelled and the feet are simply an extension of the side stiles.
Most significant is the fact that the drawers are formed with mouldings round. The area of manufacture is ascribed to Yorkshire, where this type of dresser was made over a considerable period.
Unlike 474, the joiner, using framed panels, has made a conscious effort to imitate the smooth flat expanses of the finer cabinet maker’s work, clearly seen in the careful flush fitting of the end panels, thus avoiding the archaic effect of the sides of example 474. The feet were originally bracket.
The ogee headed fielded panel stands out from the door as in mahogany work, whereas in 474 the rails and stiles are at the same level as the panel  an earlier feature. This is the last stage in the development of the
joiner’s art. A good colour helps the price. c. 1780
It looks like a dresser base so it comes into this section, but in fact what on the face of it could be rechristened a `dresser of drawers’ is in fact a chest because all the drawers are false! Each has two handles, a keyhole and is cross-banded in mahogany. The keyhole for the lifting top is under the top moulding. The give-away as to date is the reeded quarter pillars.

DRESSERS  early sideboard type
An oak dresser of the second half of the seventeenth century, showing very thick boldly turned front legs and square back legs. Each of the four drawers is divided into two panels and the side is panelled as well. The top edge is heavily moulded and another moulding has been fixed along the front edge under the drawers. The square endings to the front feet might suggest the use of stretchers out was normally a design feature. A large heavy bold piece. 1650-1670
A slightly later oak dresser with plain plank ends and moulded fronts to the three drawers with attractively applied split balusters between them. The turning on the legs is a slightly more refined version of the first
example. Also it looks old. It has sagged slightly towards the middle; the two planks which make the top have parted slightly. The dresser appears to have a very good colour. A thoroughly desirable piece.
c. 1670-1680
In contrast to the previous example this piece looks a little thin. The applied mouldings lack imagination, the rail rebated into the middle leg looks thoroughly unworkman-like (see example 469 where the rail is mortised and joined on each leg). The late handles do not help and the piece looks a little dull.
c.1700
A late seventeenth century dresser base with moulded fronts to the drawers and legs of typically turned form for the period, supporting a superstructure which looks of much later date. Dressers of this early form did
not have racks on them though there may have been shelves above them secured to the wall. The top moulding here looks much too thin compared with the bottom. It would be interesting to look at the back to see if the age of the unpolished woods matches up. 1700-1750
At first glance this cherrywood dresser might be placed in the seventeenth century. The fairly bold turned stretcherless legs, the double moulding supporting the top and the heavy equivalent beneath the deep drawers together with panelled ends all point to an early date. The handles are later. The whole piece has the look of the seventeenth century except the drawer fronts which give the game away by having an ovolo moulding round the edges which fits over the front of the carcase. This feature must place the piece post 1720.
More sophistication  this time on cabriole legs of good quality and an elaborately scrolled frieze. The drawers have a simple scratch-moulded line around the edge to emulate a cockbead. 1740-1750
All dressers are oak unless otherwise specified and are assumed to have reasonable colour.
A very fine example from the first years of the eighteenth century. The basic form remains, but a decorative under-rail has been added and emphasised by the use of cockbeading; there is also the unusual feature of a
stretcher. The drawers have been cross-banded in a contrasting wood. The effect is very successful. c. 1710
A later development of the dresser; still the large top moulding but the legs are now Chippendale, even though the two decorations on the bottom of the front rail suggest an earlier date. There is a groove line round the drawers to suggest cockbeading. Quite a successful piece if the colour is good. c. 1760-1770

DRESSERS  with shelves, and tridarns
It may seem odd to start a section on dressers with shelves by discussing tridarns, but they are closely linked both in their Welsh origin and in the possibility that the court (short) cupboard had a third layer
superimposed on top purely for display and that this proved so popular that the middle was turned over to display rather than storage which resulted in the dresser. This subject is fully explored in Chinnery, Oak
Furniture, his earliest date for tridarns, incidentally, being 1685, the latest in the nineteenth century.
The tridarns are surprisingly similar in design but in details there is a wide variation. This one has solid sides to the top level instead of parallel straight or wavy slats. It is decorated with contrasting woods and has a well-designed central panel. The back also is closely panelled. It probably dates from the first few years of the eighteenth century. It is at the top end of the quality scale. c.1710
An early dresser. The overhang and the pendants result in it being described as a canopy dresser. Cupboards on either side in the middle section are all that remain of the tridarn design. Probably from Denbighshire in
North Wales. A good piece with panelling throughout except on the back-boards which is normal. c.1 720s
The arched fielded panels of this tridarn suggest a later date for this piece. The top third seems to be gaining in importance at the expense of the middle section. c. 1735
Northern Welsh oak enclosed dresser of six drawers and two cupboards. The drawers cross-banded with mahogany, the plain panelled doors with mahogany inlaid line to the framing. The superstructure of shelves with pine back-boards containing two cupboards, the doors cross-banded with mahogany. The frieze of simple shaping and centrally pierced with heart motif. c. 1780
A magnificent example of an English oak enclosed dresser of architectural proportions, containing two cupboards and three drawers. The doors with shaped fielded panels, and these, together with the drawer fronts, being cross-banded and inlaid. The sides to the base with shaped canted corners and applied pilasters. The superstructure of shelves, unbacked, with central figure compartments, the top finely shaped and pierced frieze under the cornice supported at the sides by applied pilaster supports. 1750
Northern Welsh oak enclosed dresser of six drawers and two cupboards, the door panels shaped and fielded. The superstructure of shelves, with shaped sides, the frieze shaped and cusped. c.1730
An Anglesey, oak, enclosed break-front dresser of six drawers and two cupboards, the doors to which have applied shaped panels, the breakfront with reeded column. The superstructure of shelves has shaped sides,
better quality examples have been seen with reeded columns on the ends and the frieze. c.1780
A Lancashire dresser with applied raised moulding and the drawer fronts cross-banded in mahogany. The superstructure of shelves containing nests of drawers with figure compartment above. The frieze under the
dentil cornice with applied pierced banding. c. 1800
Northern Welsh oak enclosed dresser. The front is inlaid with mahogany forms and ivory escutcheons. The superstructure of shelves is very simple. c. 1850
Anglesey, oak, enclosed break-front dresser. The corner of the break-front has applied quarter turning which any longcase clock collector will recognise. Other examples have split applied double columns at
the ends as well as the breakfronts, and are inlaid with mahogany stars. c. 1850
A large Cumberland oak enclosed dresser. The framed doors to the cupboards with ogee fielded panel doors. The applied pilasters to the front giving the whole architectural proportions. The superstructure of shelves,
containing at the base a row of spice drawers.
A plain example, the decoration is supplied by the reeded support, shelves and top moulding.
Early 19th century
An English dresser, which makes an interesting comparison with 487. The rack arrangement, the reeded canted column supports at the ends, and the applied raised moulding round the door all suggest that it too
comes from Lancashire.
A slightly unusual oak example because of the use made of the fielded panels at the ends of the base and the architectural moulding on the supports, as well as the very wide space between the shelves. The use of
mahogany crossbanding on the drawers indicates a late date.
Late 18th century
A very simple dresser with panelled doors and the traditional six drawer arrangement. The ivory key surrounds are typical of late production.

DRESSERS  space below
A magnificent and large example of an English oak dresser of four drawers, raised upon three frontal cabriole legs, united by finely pierced and shaped apron. The superstructure of shelves, containing two cupboards with fluted frontal stiles, containing doors with square fielded panels. The frontal edges to the shelves and the upright supporters finely shaped. The frieze under the cornice, finely pierced and shaped, carrying out the design of the apron. Shropshire. c. 1750
Southern Welsh pot boarded dresser of two drawers. The legs to the base being square, the apron with ogee shaping. The superstructure of shelves being unbacked, and with finely shaped sides. The frieze of simple
shaping. c. 1740
There are clear similarities between this piece and 495. The clever use of a similar pattern of decorative frieze on the top and bottom give it a feeling of lightness. The use of cabriole legs and the two side doors
suggest that this also may come from Shropshire, certainly the West Midlands. The only slight quibble is that the cabrioles are cut straight down one side and do not look as good as 495. c. 1770
Mid-Welsh or Montgomeryshire pot boarded dresser of four drawers. The legs to the base being of baluster turning, with a shaped apron of ogee form between the legs. The apron and the drawer fronts being
cock-beaded. Between each apron and drawer an applied reeded moulding. The superstructure of shelves, with horizontal back-boards, supported by cupboarded sides, the small base cupboards of plain panelled
doors, the tall narrow cupboards above, with reeded panel doors. The shaped frieze having an applied pierced tracing above the shaping. c.1750
Mid-Welsh or Montgomeryshire pot boarded dresser of three drawers. The legs to the base being square, and reeded upon the frontal surfaces. This reeding carried on between the drawers. The apron shaped with
ogee moulding between the legs. The superstructure of shelves containing two cupboards with ‘Gothic’ shaped doors. The frieze to the superstructure with fretting and scalloping. Initialled and dated inside the
right-hand shelf cupboard `W. G. 1801′. Early 19th century
An English chestnut dresser of three drawers raised upon square tapered legs, united by a finely pierced and shaped apron. The superstructure of shelves, unbacked, with finely shaped sides, and shelf edgings with
figure compartments at the sides. The top frieze, under the cornice, finely pierced and shaped, carrying out the design in the apron.
A Welsh open-based dresser, the top board raised upon three silhouette baluster-shaped legs. The moulding around the base, forming a simple bracket foot, is of later addition. The sides with two upright rails in the
framing. The superstructure of shelves, with shaped sides and plain frieze to the top. c. 1720
Southern Welsh pot boarded dresser of six drawers. The legs to the base are chamfered to give a slender or more delicate appearance. These are united by a finely shaped apron which is returned on the sides. The
superstrucure of unbacked shelves has reeded frontal edges, the sides being stepped back between each shelf. A finely pierced and shaped frieze of scalloping runs below the top moulding. Probably Glamorganshire.
A mid-19th century version of the South Welsh oak pot board dresser, of five drawers, all cock-beaded with small twin domed arch aprons simply inlaid as sunbursts in mahogany, between the two outside drawers. The drawers, all with their original wooden knobs with mother-of-pearl inlay. The whole is supported on three turned balusters, terminated upon the pot board surmounting bracket feet. The very simple superstructure of shelves is backed by wide pine back-boards which is typical of the period.
c. 1840
An oak pot board dresser with a pair of well-turned legs and bun feet, which give it the ‘lift’ necessary to avoid the rather square appearance of the other dressers on this page.
Late 18th century
A very simple square legged dresser with drawers, cock-beaded and cross-banded in mahogany. Very basic in design with only Regency type flat reeded moulding to give it a more finished appearance. c.1820
A cottage oak dresser with pot board and simple square legs. The design is helped slightly by the shaped fret to the underside of the base. It is however small and desirable where space is limited.
Early 19th century
A tiny little dresser in oak with a pot board base. Short of decoration but desirable because small.
A North Wales pot board dresser. The main body and pot board are in pine, the legs fruitwood, and the shelves and side elm-faced with pine strips. The dowelled construction is evident from the photograph. The reeled feet are a rare feature not seen on late pieces. The shaping on the sides of the rack add greatly to the attractiveness as do the good patination and original handles. c. 1750
An exceptional pine North Welsh dresser with three drawers, two cupboard doors and three false drawers in the base, as does 510. The excellent rack above has two cupboards with drawers underneath and a
remarkably moulded top cornice with an unusually complex lentil frieze. Comes from the North Wales coast.

DRESSERS  Pine

The pine dresser seems to be almost exclusively a Welsh product. Up to about 1840 the shelves were open, after that some parts were glazed until 1870, when totally glazed racks appeared. Pine became scarcertowards the end of the century so that back-boards became narrow; by the 1890s plywood panels came into use and bun feet appeared. Like most items in Victorian Britain decoration became increasingly important at the century progressed.Particularly since oak dressers have escalated in price pine dressers have become more popular, though early wellpatinated pine (as opposed to pieces originally painted and recently stripped in a large acid bath) has always had its keen admirers. Well-polished stripped pine fits well into kitchens both modern and old and, like the dressers on the previous pages, are find their way into the living room. For more information see the article by John Creed-Miles of John Creed of Camden Passage, London, who wrote on this subject in Antique Collecting, Vol. 11, No. 12 and from which the information in this section is largely drawn. A North Welsh pine cupboard dresser base with three drawers across the top, a plain panelied door on each side, and three false drawer fronts down the middle. The space behind the false drawers is reached via the cupboard doors. The handles are replacements for the original wooden knobs but the ivory key escutcheons are original. Originally this dresser would have had a shelved rack above it. 1800-1820 A Pembrokeshire `dog kennel’ dresser so called because of the space under the centre drawer. A very popular type since it is small having been made originally to fit into the small houses of this poorer part of Wales.They are normally simply made (notice the simple boarded side, no panelling, and the plain frieze).
c. 1830
A later development of the `dog kennel’. It is better made than the previous example with panelled sides and bracket feet. 1840s
A simply constructed piece with chamfered edges to the doors in place of applied mouldings. All the doors open. c. 1840s
A larger more sophisticated design of open based dresser. Good bold mouldings and a well-executed dentil frieze, attractively shaped sides and good broad back boards. A fine example. 1770-1780