Antique Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco and 1920`s Dressers

The term ‘dresser’ comes from the side table used for the `dressing’ of food in the medieval hall. The form which was used in kitchens of the 17th and 18th centuries was still unchanged in the early 19th. Indeed
kitchen furniture, as a general rule, has been the least subject to the vagaries of fashion. The dressers illustrated here show how the piece seems to have become acceptable as a piece of furniture which could be used either in the kitchen or the dining room of the cottage or modest house. Mainly the styles reflect the popular taste for oak furniture of Stuart or Jacobean type but modern versions, in art nouveau or Edwardian styles were also made. The simplest type of dresser, illustrated by Percy Wells in the 1920s, shows little change from its predecessor of a hundred years before; it is an enduringly useful form.
Due to the tremendous rise in popularity and price of antique dressers, the late Victorian version has now also become expensive as these examples show. Pine dressers of more modest price have also become very
fashionable and the fact that a pine dresser may be virtually brand new does not seem affect price very much provided it is an attractive version.
An oak sideboard of commercial manufacture which comes quite close to the spirit of the original period from which it derives. It seems that the designers of such pieces were always surer in their touch with the top halves. It is the cabriole front legs which disappoint; they are too curvaceous, too wavy to provide the ‘Queen Anne’ solidity and proportion that one seeks. The three deep drawers could have done with a fielded effect also, to relate them to the top. 1900-1920
An oak dresser in a style which derives from court cupboards of the early 17th century and later influences. The top half in its way is impressive, even if the downward-going turned knobs do conflict with the
upward-going turned pillars with their bulbous bases. The lower half is less sure, as the turned legs are thinner and the stretcher arrangement an eyesore. Inconsistency has triumphed by putting applied split balusters on the end stiles but a split bobbin turning at the centre. The asymmetric arrangement of a cupboard with two doors occupying one side and two drawers the other is purely 20th century. 1900-1920
An oak ‘Jacobean’ dresser with much twist turning to the legs, stretchers and tier shelf supports. The central and top aprons are shaped with stylistically consistent forms, but the two side cupboards, while doubtless
useful, are borrowed from the 18th century sideboard. Geometric applied mouldings to drawer and cupboard doors complete the Jacobean effect. A bold and decorative piece. 1910-1920
An oak dresser with twist-turned front legs and inlaid boxwood and ebony stringing lines to the panels on the very deep drawers. Borrowing a bit from the Jacobean in design and a bit from the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Another oak ‘Jacobean’ dresser sporting art nouveau handles to the drawers which are set beside a pair of cupboard doors in an asymmetric arrangement. Twist turned legs, stretchers and top supports and a rather
more expensively panelled back than the usual vertical planking.
Although in oak, this dresser exhibits the typical bas-relief machined carving in panels, also to be found on walnut and mahogany furniture of this period. The weakest point of the design is the use of the prissy cabriole front legs and scrolled bottom apron. If these are ignored, the base and top half are quite a bold, well-proportioned construction.
An open oak dresser by the same maker as the previous example, 349, but without the smashable glazed centre door disapproved of by Percy Wells (see 353). The use of ebony and boxwood diagonally-banded
stringing lines and inlays seems to have originated with Arts and Crafts Movement designers and remained popular in the 1910-1925 period. 1910-1925
An oak dresser on ‘Queen Anne’ cabriole front legs and plain construction but with a centre cupboard to the top shelf with a glazed door showing a stained glass tulip motif as decoration. Quite an Arts and Crafts
addition to a commercial mass-produced piece. 1900-1920
An oak dresser of plain construction sporting a set of art nouveau hinges to the doors, otherwise unremarkable.
A dresser from Percy Wells c.1920, intended to be made from whitewood and stained light brown. It is 3ft.6ins. wide and the top is “not to high to dust”. Wells was concerned with designs for new cottages in which there would be a kitchen-living room combined, in which such a dresser would stand. He was worried about the use of glass doors in the upper part, as recommended by the `Women’s Housing Sub-Committee’
(shades of 1984) because glass doors would add to cost. Since the china on the shelves would be used three times a day, there would be little time for it “to get dusty”. Glass doors would mean “more work to keep
them clean” and “expense if the glass got broken”. (Presumably this would happen when the husband of the wife emancipated from dusting and cleaning meretricious ornaments, hurled his beer mug at his spouse.)
Wells preferred solid doors instead of glass. The dresser was intended to be in the living room, thus preventing the purchase of a modern, cheap chiffonier or sideboard  “anything but good or pleasant”. The rails of the doors are chamfered on the inside edges, but a plain rounded surface “is better than a chamfer” as far as “leaving no edge at all for dust to settle on”. Banter apart, the piece is useful, functional and proportionally well designed. A desirable unit which is virtually ageless unless the built-in kitchen takes over completely  including the dining room. c. 1920
A small dresser of Percy Wells design, c.1920, apparently in oak but also conceived for whitewood, stained a light brown, waxed and set with a rubber polish. The shelf at the back was intended for china or books. The
terms ‘dresser’ and ,sideboard’ were somewhat interchangeable to Wells, who visualised the use of such a piece in either the kitchen or living room  rooms which were combined into one large room in contemporary
designs for new cottages. He was quite right to say that it is difficult to see where a dresser ends and a sideboard begins, but took a tier of shelves as being the definitive feature of a dresser.
A dwarf dresser from Wells, c.1920, of simple and straightforward design. Almost down to a kitchen cupboard but still conceived from Wells’ dresser principle  certainly low enough to dust. It is interesting to compare this unit with the one designed by Ambrose Heal see p. 34. c.1920
A walnut dresser base on cabriole legs connected by moulded stretchers. The three drawers are veneered in burr walnut and have a herringbone inlay between the burr veneer and the crossbanding. The piece is an
interesting interpretation of a ‘Queen Anne’ style, with rather high-quality cabrioles ending in a squared hoof-type foot and with shell motifs carved on the knees. There is a solid half-round moulding applied to the carcase edge around the drawers. The stretchers are an agreeable fantasy, quite unnecessary structurally and of a form derived from the cross-stretchers of the William and Mary period. Not knowing quite how to use the cross-stretcher idea between an uneven number of legs  five  the maker has compromised by putting in straight ones around the sides and back, and then has connected his traditional ogee curves to the back one by means of a semi-circular one in each case. 1920-1940
An oak dresser base from Maurice Adams, the stout column-turned baluster front legs of which are let down badly by the weak stretchers and back legs. There are two cupboard doors and two deep drawers with applied geometric mouldings in the Jacobean manner. 1920-1930

CREDENZAS

Victorian ebonised credenza, about 1870.
Aintheir name means sideboard in Italian, in Britain, credenzas were drawing-room rather than dining-room pieces, distinguished from chiffoniers and simpler side cabinets by their extensive decoration and their shaped (usually curving) outline. The best show strong French or Italian influence.
Generally a central, straight-fronted section with one or two panelled doors, flanked by curved end sections containing display shelves, either open, or enclosed by glazed doors. Inner shelves polished or covered in
velvet. Can be more complex serpentine shape, or straightforward breakfront form. Central door panels may be fully veneered or fretted, mirrored or glazed (and have often been altered at a later date). Plinth base (plain or with decorative aprons) or plinth supported on small turned feet. Uprights flanking central cupboard often faced with carved columns.
Rococo walnut side Cabinet, aboat 1865. Polished (occasionally marble) top above decorated frieze; cheapest versions with dullish-grey/white marble, but other colours on best quality.
Mostly highly figured (often burr) walnut or satinwood; less commonly rosewood; simplest in mahogany. Tulipwood, kingwood, box and many other- for inlay and marquetry; brass and tortoiseshell for boulle. Pine or cheap Honduras mahogany for carcases.
Standard methods employed. Always veneered on dovetailed carcase. Generally too decorative to reproduce economically; most likely alteration is the replacement of the wooden top with marble. Originally these had
no fixings (i.e. the marble just sat on top); signs of fixings on the carcase therefore indicate change.
Inlay: Single or double stringing defining the outline of various sections is common. Marquetry: Mostly confined to friezes and centre of door panels. Floral until about 1865; thereafter neo-classical.
Some doors have porcelain plaques set in the centre, with gilt metal surround; occasionally pietre dura (polished marble/stone mosaic) usually in floral pattern.
Overall patterns of boulle marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell, usually of Louis XIV inspiration.
Occasionally patterns of carved fretwork.
Many pieces have applied ormolu or gilt brass mounts (in French taste) at top and/or base of uprights; occasionally smaller mounts on frieze.
Usually French polish. Sometimes ebonised (i.e. black stain).
Tremendous variation in price depending on quality and extent of decoration. Boulle or fine marquetry at a premium; ebonised pieces never much liked. Almost all in four figures, the best edging into five.

CHIFFONIERS
A mahogany chiffonier with scrolled shelf supports. Several similar types appear in designs of this period. 1820-1830
A rosewood chiffonier with glazed door panels in gilt Gothic design frames. The shelf above is supported on ormolu pillars and has a gallery rail. There is a mirror at the back.
An elegant chiffonier with shelves above, brass latticed doors and bracket feet.
A chiffonier is basically a side cabinet, developed with a shelf or shelves above from the late eighteenth century. The term has come to be used rather loosely but is current in the antique trade to describe small cabinets with shelves for use as a small sideboard, incidental library or drawing room piece. It is really very difficult to be didactic as to where a cabinet and a chiffonier change places, but the examples in the section which follows are those generally described as chiffoniers.
A rosewood chiffonier with heavy turned and reeded pillars and brass latticed arched doors with silk backing.
Many chiffoniers of the Victorian period now on sale in the market are in fact small Victorian sideboards with the top rail or back removed and, possibly, a new shelf added. The really frequent `improvement’ of such pieces is to take a Victorian sideboard or cabinet, with its arched panelled doors, and remove the panels. The resulting door frame is then ’squared’ at the top to provide a more Georgian design and a brass lattice, with silk behind, is added to produce a ‘Regency’ piece.
Brass latticed doors   Rosewood
A small mahogany chiffonier with a brass latticed door. The lattice could be a latter addition. The convex drawer design is typical of the period. 1840-1850
A mahogany chiffonier or sideboard with machine carved top rail and scrolled decoration.
A Regency mahogany chiffonier or cabinet, c.1825, with reeded shelves above and cross-banded doors with brass lattices backed by pleated silk. A simple and restrained example of a piece of furniture which originated as an incidental cupboard or commode.
A Regency mahogany chiffonier, c.1825, with a brass gallery around the upper shelf. The two supporting columns are also brass. This is a slightly later example where the style has become a little less restrained in the curving sides and feet. The brass lattices in the doors are again backed by pleated silk.
N.B. It is again useful to note that this piece of furniture could be described as a cabinet or commode and probably originated as a piece of lady’s incidental furniture.
A Regency chiffonier, c.1825, of rather more ornate type, often found in rosewood. The shelves have mirror backs and are supported by curved brackets in receding proportion. The sides are reeded and the doors latticed.
A Victorian mahogany chiffonier, c.1840, in well-figured wood with a drawer fitted flush under the top. There is another, floor level drawer under the solid, cross-banded cupboard doors. A pleasantly simple design.
A later Victorian chiffonier, c.1860, in carved mahogany with mirror back and glazed side doors. Electro-gilt metal mounts on such pieces replace the restrained brass of the Regency. Marble-topped versions without the mirror back but with mirrored doors are still common.

French Dressers

A fine Charles II period small antique French dresser, c.1670. 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.
Another fine larger oak French 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.
A fruitwood French dresser of c.1720 date. 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.
A rather more countrified French dresser of c.1720, 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.
Price Range: 140  160
An oak French 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.
An oak French 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.
A much simpler and cruder oak French dresser of c1730, with simple single cupboard doors. There is a simple thumb-nail moulding round the top edge and the frame also has a simple moulding around drawers and panel edges.
An oak French dresser of c.1750 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.
An oak French dresser of c.1750. 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.
A cupboarded oak French dresser of c.1760, 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.
A later eighteenth century oak French dresser, of c.1′790, 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.
Spice drawers
Original handles
A Welsh oak antiqueFrench dresser of last quarter of the eighteenth 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.

DRESSERS: DUMB WAITERS
About 1750-1830
Straightforward mahogany dumb waiter, ,lbout 1760.
Acontemporary term for an early form of supper trolley for use when servants were not in attendance. Designed to stand within easy reach of the table to hold condiments, plates and other dining accessories.
A central turned column on a tripod (or occasionally four-legged) base, with feet mounted on castors and two or three open circular shelves of graduating size with moulded rims. Rare examples have four tiers.
In mid-18thC pieces the tripod base is similar to tripod tables (see p.175), but with castors. Cabriole legs, pad feet and central column formed as vase-shaped baluster. Occasionally claw-and-ball feet. Knees, feet (or entire leg) and central column sometimes carved with foliate decoration.
Regency columns straight-edged, slightly tapering, with moulded collars at widely spaced intervals.
Post-1790, reeded and splayed legs on box castors. ‘Kneed’ legs indicate a post-1810 date. Castors can be of lion’s paw or claw feet form.
In best pieces turnings between trays are of diminishing diameter.
Rims to trays usually formed as simple mouldings but occasionally scalloped or carved with leaf or other patterns. Sometimes a fret-carved gallery, on early examples of Gothic or Chinese design. Sometimes shallow recesses turned in surface to prevent dishes from sliding about.
Variations include:
Flat trays with hinged, folding flaps, the flaps supported by a swivelling bar.
Trays of equal diameter supported on thin brass columns fixed around the edge rather than the central column.
A relatively complex Sheraton-style with drawers below, plate racks on shelves, and so on.
Base formed as wine cooler with column rising from centre.
Nearly always mahogany; just occasionally rosewood during Regency.
Trays turned on a lathe, the best quality from one piece of timber, though occasionally two, fixed together with tongue-and-groove joints. Can be very thin.
Top tray usually supported on column with wooden flange although sometimes the top section of the column projects right through and ends in a finial.
Until 1790 castors attached to separate block with grain running in opposite direction.
Column made in sections which screw together and hold the intervening trays in place.
Carving on some pieces around the rims and on the base. Not uncommon for carving to be added at a later date to enhance value. Original carving will stand proud of the surface; later additions flush with it.
VALUES
Yet another item invariably priced in four figures nowadays (assuming it is right). Be very suspicious if less.
CONVERSIONS
Not very popular items in the past; many converted to more valuable and popular tripod tables (usually given away by filling of the central hole). More collectable today though.
Check that borders of trays and turnings of column match exactly; if not, suspect a marriage. Check also that all the trays are level and that none have warped.

DRESSERS
About 1650-1915
Late-17thC dresser with applied geometric moulding.
At all times a respected piece of furniture in rural homes - good enough for use as a sideboard in the parlours of large farmhouses and manor houses, but found only in the kitchens of more sophisticated town and city dwellers. Tremendous regional variation; as a very general rule, an open base and open shelves above are southern characteristics, and backboards on the rack and solid drawers and cupboards below, northern features.
Welsh dresser has become a popular term for all types of dresser, regardless of their place of manufacture.
Until the late 17thC generally a base only was present. This could be in the form of a long table with a single frieze of two, three or more (often deep) drawers supported on turned (commonly baluster) front legs, occasionally joined by stretchers, sometimes by a ‘pot board’ (a deep platform shelf to hold large vessels). Rear legs always straight and square in section. Top usually bordered by an applied moulding, matched by a moulding beneath the drawers; or made as a solid piece with a frieze of drawers with cupboards below, with or without top and base mouldings, and with stile feet.
Mid-18thC dresser with arched and helded panels.
After 1700 a shaped apron, and occasionally cabriole legs, were introduced on the first type, and after 1710, bracket feet on the second. Fielded and shaped panels were common on doors; occasionally a shaped plinth, or bun feet.
Early-l8thC dresser.
A rack (or superstructure of shelves) was introduced about 1690; until about 1750 this was seldom attached, merely sitting on top of the base or being fixed to wall above. Usually two or three shelves (sometimes of graduated depth); most have grooves or stays (narrow strips of moulding) to support plates. Sides can be shaped or straight. Projecting moulded cornice may have shaped and/or pierced apron below. Some racks have small (often square-fronted) spice drawers in, or just above the base. Some have backboards, but many are later additions (see CONSTRUCTION).
Variations include: an open ‘dog kennel’ in centre of base; a clock in centre of upper part of rack (a Yorkshire characteristic); glazed doors on rack of fitted kitchen dressers (from about 1870).
Mid l8thC cupboard base dresser, rack with spice drawers above.
The popularity of dressers of sideboard type for use in the dining-rooms of town houses towards the end of the 19thC resulted in some ornate machine-carved examples with turned supports and stretchers made in Renaissance or Jacobean’ style. A few were made in Arts and Crafts and progressive styles.
Predominately oak; elm, fruitwoods, occasionally ash and other local woods. Mahogany, sometimes walnut, for decorative cross-banding. Pine for some genuinely Welsh dressers from 18thC onwards, and for most Victorian and Edwardian kitchen pieces.
Frame and panel construction with pegged (in later 19thC, glued) mortise-and-tenon joints.
Drawer rebated and nailed, with coarse dovetails. Applied and mitred mouldings on drawer fronts until about 1710-1720, when sometimes replaced by ovolo lip mouldings (covering gap between carcase and drawer. Sometimes simple cockbead after about 1730, or groove.
Shelves of rack tenoned and pegged through side uprights.
Marriages of racks to older bases common. Check for matching colour and grain of timber. Look for regular machine saw marks on underside of shelvesindicating 19thC (or later) date.
Backboards often later addition (particularly on once-fitted pine kitchen dressers). Can usually be identified by regular width. Decorative friezes and aprons may also be added to increase value. Look again for regular machine-cut saw marks on their back.
As functional pieces of furniture in everyday use, old dressers should show signs of considerable wear, especially on the top, shelves and drawer linings. As they are mostly used in kitchens, expect to see build-up of dirt and grease around handles, in plate grooves and around all exterior joints. The insides of drawers will be scratched and dented.
Seldom any decoration. Occasionally mahogany or walnut cross-banding on drawers and cupboards doors.
Handles: Typical for their day (for details see page 87). Iron or brass drop handles in 17thC, brass bails in 18thC, and wooden knobs after about 1825.
Polish. Stain or paint on 19thC pine. (Many of these are sold incorrectly stripped and waxed today. Ironically they may be worth more in their changed condition than with their original, but usually less attractive, finish.)
VALUES
If ‘right’ (though allowing for minor repairs), price undoubtedly in the thousands; the best and earliest in five figures. Late, pine kitchen dressers not far behind, even when originally fitted.
A firm regional attribution or inclusion of a dog kennel, or clock, price advantage.
Marriages, if done convincingly, may not affect value greatly.
A simple Kitchen dresser