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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BettyRubble, post: 10052921, member: 85146&quot;]Thank you for your feedback and notes, very helpful.&nbsp; And yes, I am thrilled with this piece, I chose it because I want to live with it.&nbsp; </p><p>While it would have been very exciting for this piece to be, say, Federal, or American Empire, it would also mean that any restore/refurbish would adversely impact value.&nbsp; To leave it in its present state would make it hard to live with on a daily basis.&nbsp; </p><p>I chose this piece because it struck me as very special, but not so precious that some judicious repair and refurbishment will kill its value-and I mean value in a heritage or historical sense. </p><p>As I cleaned and examined the piece at home, I noted so many cues that indicated hand work, or old methods, like band saw marks.&nbsp; Also the use of solid planks in odd ways.&nbsp; The top is one solid slab of birdseye quilted maple, with the impressive figure laid DOWN, showing the straight grain on top.&nbsp; Who does that, unless you want to make the top look like something that&#039;s not maple?&nbsp; The bracing blocks on that top slab are literally quarter sections of split tree branches with the bark still on it.&nbsp; So idiosyncratic, seemed like the work of one guy in a shop doing what he wanted, as opposed to some production boss.&nbsp; I became excited and worried at the same time.&nbsp;&nbsp; But then the dye in the shellac (assuming that&#039;s what it is) put it after 1860, which was a relief-and a disappointment. </p><p>I dislike the flimsy replacement pulls, and the very sloppy lacquer on top;&nbsp; easy to see why in person, and also in the photos I posted to Google Drive.&nbsp; That will come of with some lacquer thinner.&nbsp; Ugh.&nbsp; I will be using this piece daily, and so I will probably use old-school phenolic varnish--Epifanes, or Schooner--on the top itself.&nbsp; </p><p>This came from Worcester County, Massachusetts.&nbsp; The seller told me it had been in his family and he didn&#039;t know how long.&nbsp; His parents are gone, and the bureau came down to him through his aunt who had passed.&nbsp; Zero marks on it, except for some wax pencil on the inside of the drawers with numbers on them--so that you put them back in the right order.&nbsp; I was really hoping someone would say, &quot;That&#039;s the work of Joe Bagofdonuts from Leominster, who built furniture from 1850-1900!&quot;&nbsp; It may happen yet.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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