Time period and origin of this washstand

I bought this little guy a couple weeks ago and just got him home today.

Im probably wrong but I think it's an early southern piece, But that's just cause that's what I want it to be

Most of the nails have been puttied over and the hinges have been swapped for modern day.

Anyone have an idea?

 

I couldn't tell you where it's from but I would guess it was made anywhere from 1840-1860.
Thank you for the excellent pictures!

 

Would the proper term for this be a commode?

Im looking in the book, Pennsylvania Country Antiques, and it says a commode is a moveable sink or wash stand with a closet underneath while a wash stand is technically a stand with no closet..

I think the word commode can be off putting.
When i hear it all I thunk about is the way my MIL says it and uses it as the word toilet.

 

Hopefully someone else will come around to answer more of your questions because my knowledge of furniture is only the construction methods (which is usually sufficient to date a piece of furniture).

 

Thanks for your input!
Can anyone identify the wood?

Its not my strong suit

 

Id think more 1870s.and mass produced.Looks like pine to me, But Im often wrong.

 

Seagoat, just curious but . . . is that a "keyhole" in the middle front toward the top of the drawer?

If it is, would that be a "usual" feature in a washstand?

What would/could be so precious in that drawer (soap, lotion, unguents homemade or bought) or anything that children could be harmed by as to merit a key lock?.

 

The wood does look like pine to me too.

 

Theres a key hole in the drawer and door

 

Would think this is a server from about 1870. It is possible that it is just a base to a taller piece. That top looks like it could be a replacement. I don't like the way those cut corners look. Some of the wood looks other than pine so could be mixed woods. The top is definitely pine. Not so sure about the rest, though the door panels and sides (from what little I can see of them) look like they could be.

 

There was a marble top but it did not look right to the piece..
Plus why would the wood top have an ogee edge




The cut corners match with the "slanted" corners of the body, but i guess someone could have done that.

 

Mid 19th century, american, guesses pine & poplar. Typical frame & panel construction of that era, guesses 1840's because of the hand cut dovetails. By the 1850s in america, furniture building was undergoing a revolution, from hand made to machine made thanks to steam power. If it is poplar, guesses Mid Atlantic region.

 

That's what I was thinking too, the dovetail is definitely hand-made and the use of three tenons on each joint was primarily in the mid 19th century.

 

The word commode does mean toilet and the reason these are called commodes is that this is where you would store the chamber pot during the day. I have an oak one that has been in the family since before I was around because my mother used it. It probably would be locked to keep kids from getting into the dirty chamber pot - I mean, it got emptied in the morning, but not washed out much. (said the person who didn't have indoor plumbing until she was ten.)

 

That marble top looks correct for the piece and makes it a wash stand. I wonder if the wood top is a replacement or has been turned upside-down. If the profiled edge was on the underside, it would transition to the marble.

The style on this is wrong for 1840. 1840 was when Federal was waning and Empire was becoming the height of fashion. This is a renaissance revival (cottage sub-type) piece. This is Civil War era and not a big city piece. The marble top does take it a notch above a country piece.

1850 is too early to expect machine made furniture for most of America. It really wasn't until the 1880s that machining of dovetails became wide-spread. I would imagine you might see wide arc circular saw marks on this piece as machines were beginning to be used more commonly in mill-work at this time.

 

1850 is too early to expect machine made furniture for most of America

I am going to disagree on this. Prior to the 19th century, water power was the dominate source of power in america however, steam power went from 5% to 80% of the total power generated in the US from 1838-1860. Any way you slice or dice it, that's an incredibly rapid change.
While it's true that machine dovetailing was not perfected till later, steam powered saws, planers, lathes, etc changed the way furniture was built in a big way. Thomas Day, a free black man from Virginia operated the largest & most successful furniture work shop in North Carolina during the 1850s. To craft his cabinets and other furniture pieces, including beds and bookshelves, Day worked with hand tools in his earlier years, but in the 1840s he introduced steam power into his workshop.
This steam power quickened Day’s crafting process and increased production levels, because Day could easily replace structural pieces made from standardized design templates using steam power, and could have ready-made elements for when orders were placed . Notably, scholars today can often pinpoint which pieces of furniture were created around this time because they are partially hand-crafted and partially machine-fabricated, indicating that the steam power was new and still being integrated into the crafting process.
Bottom line? Once steam power came in and expanded production, if you didn't have it in your shop (no matter what you made) there is no way you were going to be able to compete with those that did.

 

And for others who might want to see some examples of Thomas Day's work:

The link below is to the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery:

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2013/day/

The link has a photo gallery of some of Thomas Day's furniture and embellishments for houses.

 

Neat! on Thomas Day. Although i am from Washington DC, i have lived in Charlotte NC since 2000 and became aware of Day's work while visiting MESDA in Winston Salem NC. Interesting man & life story.

 

Just a passing thought to keep in mind when considering dates.

This discussion seems to cover a span of 50 or less years. In an age when it could take 3 months to get a letter from NY to St. Louis, I think you have to take into consideration the time it took for technology to travel to different parts of the country. Not only availability of said technology, but the affordability of the technology. A small town carpenter who was producing furniture in the local vernacular for local sale would not have the same technology as a wholesale manufacturer in an East Coast city.

As with 3-D printers today - in ages to come there will be discussions on WHY a measuring cup was mass manufactured, imported from China and purchased at Costco, when it could have been printed in someone's kitchen......................

 

Here's a better picture of the saw marks, from under the drawer




Here's pictures out of the book referenced above