Pine Chest of Drawers

Hi, I joined the forum because I’ve been buying antique furniture for my Victorian house over the last 5 years and wanted to share some finds and get some advice!

Most of our purchases have been via gumtree, it’s unbelievable the things we’ve bought for £50-200.

We just bought this huge pine chest of drawers today and I wondered if anyone knew anything about it’s age and likely origin. It’s 1.2m x 1.25m x 0.6m. Enormous! I’ve been seen anything as chunky, it’s like a farmhouse style dresser.

The pictures don’t do it justice, it’s that beautiful oaky colour of pine with glass handles (don’t appear original!).

 

Welcome to the forum, Smithys.
Lovely chest of drawers. The furniture people will be along soon.

 

Does anyone else but me wonder if this was painted? It's a nice hunk of wood furniture. It might be worth looking inside just to see; if it were American I'd bet on it.

 

I thought it looked like it might have been stripped also.

 

It’s been painted at one point as you can see the paint in small indentations.

 

Georgian - early 19th C. Some fool dipped it at some point, handles are replacements. It still looks nice though.

 

So what it was first made, would it have been stained a darker colour or painted?

 

Stained or waxed/polished darker, rather than painted. Some were ebonised, I don't think yours was. It probably had quite a nice patina and it looks as though it's starting to again. You can see bits of the original colour. Give it a bit of lavender beeswax once a year, and just dust with a soft cloth in between. And handle it like mad.

 

I agree with obb, not painted, not ebonised. A darker polish is likely.
I would replace the replaced handles, but that's just me.

 

Thanks for the advice. Would pieces like this have been produced on a relatively large scale or back then would most items be one offs?

 

Interesting question. Many small carpenters and companies made to designs in published pattern books, rather than designing from scratch. But they'd still perhaps tweak a thing by adding their own handles or whatever. Larger companies - Gillows, say - did make longer runs, but furniture was still usually commissioned, rather than being made and sitting in a shop. Your chest might have been amended for someone who wanted a bigger piece.

It's only really recently that companies have started having larger stocks. I bought Stag furniture back in the 70s from John Lewis and it was made for us. Has my surname in challk on the base of the drawers.