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BIEDERMEIER FURNITURE

THE TERM “BIEDERMEIER” covers the wide spectrum of simple, Classical, handcrafted, functional furniture made between 1805 and 1850, which was made at the same time as furniture in the Empire style (see p.212). While the nobility furnished their formal rooms with Empire furniture, the more
private parts of their houses and mansions were furnished in the Biedermeier style, which was favoured by the wealthy middle classes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scandinavia.
Political unrest in the German states in the early 19th century created a general feeling of uncertainty and increasing poverty. As a result, people withdrew into the privacy of their own homes, and the middle classes in particular began to take an increasing interest in furnishings.
MODEST STYLE
Biedermeier furniture typically had straight lines and lacked decorative carvings. Motifs inspired by Classical designs, such as columns, gables, egg and dart, and bead and reel details
were all popular.
The cupboard door is decorated with an arched panel.
From about 1830, designs incorporated scrolled forms: chairs often had splayed legs, sofas had arched backs, and moulded cornices were used as ornament for writing cabinets.
POPULAR WOODS
The most fashionable woods for Biedermeier furniture were mahogany which was imported and, therefore, rather too expensive for this essentially middle-class style, and also less costly local woods such as walnut, cherry,
pear, birch, and ash, combined with dark elm and thuyawood. The grain of the wood was the most important decorative feature. The natural grain of the veneer was emphasized with various pyramidal or fountain-like shapes. Root veneers of acorn, burr-walnut, and elm were also popular because of their varied colour and attractive markings. Darker woods were frequently used as borders around diamond-shaped keyholes, block feet, or cornices.
RESTRAINED INTERIORS Biedermeier interiors were modestly furnished, and the emphasis was on practicality and comfort, rather than decoration. The furniture was moderate in size, rounded in shape, comfortable, and homely.
Many pieces had a counterpart –another piece that was similar in size – to balance the furnishing of the room. The secretaire with a fall front and the blender, which looked like an imitation secretaire, but was
A typical Biedermeier living room, c.1820-30
This simple Saxon living room is typical of a modest townhouse of the period. The living room was the social centre of the home, and great care was taken with the arrangement of the furniture.
designed for use as a linen press or wardrobe, were very common styles.
An overall colour scheme was a prominent feature of Biedermeier interiors and frequently light-coloured upholstery, curtains, and woods were chosen to create a homely interior with an integrated sense of design.
The advances in manufacturing that occurred during this period did not have much impact until the second half of the century, so early Biedermeier furniture was visibly hand-made. Upholstery was generally flat and square, made of silk or horsehair, and wooden surfaces were simply planed and polished with oil.
By the mid 19th century, the style was seen as comfortable but rather dowdy, and was given the name Biedertmeier, a satirical term that meant “the decent common man”. The name was originally used in a German publication for a fictional middle-class character, and was not intended to be particularly flattering.
The style gradually began to decline in popularity and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that this negative evaluation began to fade, and Biedermeier-style furniture once again became much sought after. This led in turn to the style being widely copied.
BIEDERMEIER DINING CHAIRS
These chairs are made of solid walnut wood and walnut veneer. The backs are balloon-shaped and have double baluster splats and a shaped top rail. The tapered, upholstered seats are typical of the period and sit above sabre
legs. The chairs are upholstered with a Neoclassical-style striped fabric, probably the original fabric, that is decorated with flowers. 1820
BIEDERMEIER WRITING CABINET
Covered entirely in cherry-wood veneer, this impressive writing cabinet has a fall front that opens to reveal a fitted interior. The inner compartment consists of 11 small drawers flanking a central tabernacle. The lower portion
of the cabinet consists of three large drawers set on simple bracket feet. This practical piece embodies the Biedermeier ethos of comfort and convenience and would have been used in the sitting room, which was the focal point of the home. c.1820.
Pigeonholes provide storage space for letters.
The interior drawers have Ivory handles.
The fall front opens to forma writing surface.
The bottom part of the cabinet is made up of three drawers.
BIEDERMEIER SOFA
The frame of this elegant sofa is scroll-shaped with a slightly raised back. The shape takes its inspiration from Classical pieces, and is typical of the simple, geometric design that was favoured by Biedermeier designers. Ornate carvings and
decoration were not part of the Biedermeier style. The sofa is veneered in cherry wood, which has been blackened in places, using a simple inlay of ebony to accent the flat surface of the wood. The upholstered seat
is coil-sprung for comfort. c.1825.
BIEDERMEIER WALL MIRROR
This mirror frame is architectural in style and is decorated with cherry veneer. The ebonized columns are edged by gilded bases and capitals, which support a Classical-style cornice and pediment. The central mount shows the goddess Diana. 1820 30
BIEDERMEIER WALNUT-VENEERED COMMODE
This commode has a top with an ebonized border above a frieze drawer. A further two recessed drawers are flanked by turned, ebonized columns with gilded Corinthian capitals and feet. The middle drawer is decorated with floral and figural details. 1820 30.
BIEDERMEIER GLAZED CABINET
This birch-veneered cabinet was made in Berlin and has a stepped pediment with a flat top. The oval glazed door panel is decorated with fine wooden spokes emanating from a central sun motif. At the base of the cabinet there is a single drawer with a lock. c.1820.
BIEDERMEIER DINING TABLE
Made in southern Germany, this simple dining table is veneered in cherry wood with a star pattern on the table top. Some of the veneer is blackened to add visual interest. The single pedestal terminates in a tripartite base.
c.1830.

see also biedermeier art  deco desk kidney shape
biedermeier art deco desk bureau
biedermeier bedside commode chest
biedermeier furniture swedish drop front desk
biedermeier glass kaendler
biedermeier love seat sweden
biedermeier reproduction desk
biedermeier style doors
biedermeir interiors

authentic biedermeier mouldings

antiques clock index vienna biedermeier

Baroque Furniture
The principal characteristic of Baroque is its rejection of the rationalism of the Renaissance. Baroque is much more dynamic and lively, particularly with its use of light and shade in the manner of a painter. The design of a piece and its detail were subjugated to achievement of dynamism, which was at the core of Baroque. The eye for the main lines was expressed through the materials used. Wood was inlaid with gemstones or semi-precious stones, tortoiseshell, precious metal, and ivory. Light was reflected by polished wood. Supports were turned as scrolls and an overall impression of curved form was created by the use of projecting pediments, plinths, and cornices. Much use was made of acanthus stems with broad leaves and conch shell motifs.
It is difficult to determine with furniture when Baroque replaced the Renaissance because the two styles co-existed for a time. Furthermore the characteristic Baroque elements only became fully apparent during the late eighteenth century.
France
Most of Europe, with a few exceptions, fell sway to the dynamism of Baroque. France though preferred more rigid classical lines. This found its expression in an individual French style of furniture. It was precisely at this time that greater power came into the hands of the French king and with it a greater role in artistic commissions and hence of trends at the hands of the French court.
The best artists and craftsmen worked in the Royal studios — with the establishment in 1677 of the Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne. Cabinet making became regarded as an art in itself, with cabinet makers also working as ebeniste (specialist in inlay or marquetry — the name is derived from the
French predilection for ebony inlay) and woodcarver.
In addition to the importance of construction and decoration in the making of furniture, consideration was also given to the location in which the furniture was to stand. The ebeniste, designer of the ornamentation, and the architect all made decisions about the final form of a piece. In the Middle Ages furniture had been largely portable or easily moved but during the Renaissance furniture was made for a more set place in the interior of homes. Now the far extreme was reached in which it was no longer intended that the piece should ever be moved.
A strange schism arose between furniture for the citizenry and very luxurious pieces. This also meant that different materials were used in the making of these different items. Instead of the customary walnut, more exotic types of wood were now used.
A good example of this is the use of ebony, which by the time of Louis XIII was already being decorated with coloured inlays.
The artist Andre Charles, who worked for the court of Louis XIV was exceptionally talented, and stood out from the other ebenistes. In his early period he also used Dutch motifs such as vases of jasmine, roses, and tulips in his mosaic woodwork. Later he was influenced by the designs of Berain and Marot and replaced his motifs with banding linked together with acanthus stems. His designs were formed with both negative and positive inlays such as light pewter in tortoiseshell and vice versa. Later still he replaced the marquetry of the 1660’s and 70’s as it became less fashionable.
The bed was an important piece of furniture as the whole morning ceremony of rising or lever occurred around it. The enclosed square form of the bed remained with four posts and both outer and inner curtains. The bedroom had several ante-rooms attached in which there was much coming and going of court functionaries. The chest was banished from the furnishing of rooms and was replaced by the commode which became popular in France around 1700. The commode was a development of the chest with drawer which Boulle placed on legs. In the French salons table commodes also appeared, set on tall legs, encrusted with inlays of metal and tortoiseshell. These legs were furthermore decorated with bronze mascarons or grotesque masks. The drawers too were fitted with bronze handles which also held the encrusted decoration in the veneer.
The most important piece of salon furniture was a superbly made cabinet with drawes. At first the Boulle cabinets had separate plinths but later these were integral.
Tables were adapted to the considerable demands of the time and there were numerous variations. In common with other furniture, tables too were inlaid with metal and the same was equally true of cashier’s tables, most of which had a small drawer. The older-style baluster legs were considered too plump and were replaced by cabriole legs.
Other rooms than the salons were often used for a number of purposes and as required night and toilet cabinets might be placed in them.
There were also heavy tables with marble tops plus smaller tables for lamps and suchlike. Console tables provided an architectural element.Seating in the form of fa u teu ils (armchairs), tabourets, sofas, and chairs formed part of the interiors of the homes of the wealthy and the aristocracy but cabinets did not. These were found in the homes of the citizenry but the new item of luxury furniture was the bookcase.
Many different types of armchair and chair were made. Armchairs with turned legs were widely used but later these legs were replaced with richly decorated baluster legs. These were joined together
with diagonal carved stretchers or with H-form stretchers but these disappeared with the arrival of cabriole legs.
The backs of armchairs became more all encompassing and were upholstered and rounded off at the top in an arch. The curved arms of the chairs also became upholstered.
French furniture makers were also influenced by English furniture makers. This led to the introduction of the commodite — a kind of wide armchair — into France. The canape was also partially developed from the English day bed or lit de repos.
German-speaking Europe and the Low Countries
Baroque expressed itself in Germany through very excessive and lively inlay and carving and was of considerable influence there. The elements of the Baroque style were incorporated with both imagination and consistency. The output of German furniture makers was equally diverse as German politics. Designs based on the Renaissance endured for a long time but alongside this a new style developed in the palaces, castles, and grand homes of the countless principalities, which adopted a great deal of the influences from elsewhere. Furniture was imported into northern Germany for some considerable time from the northern Netherlands. After the death of Frederick I of Prussia in 1713 late Italian Baroque started to become more widespread and the artistic centre moved to Dresden, which became one of the most important artistic centres in Europe under Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony.
The Bavarian court in southern Germany was strongly influenced by French examples and items such as console tables with French baluster legs and lighter tables in the style of Boulle were made. The encrusted decoration of this maker and also of Marot found favour here too. Cabinets in ebony from Augsburg of this period are exceptionally fine. They have inlays of polychrome stones, ivory, wood, and pietra dura (mosaic of semi-precious stones).
Furniture was largely made from walnut with intarsia inlays of other wood. Great care was taken to ensure that the beauty of the grain of the walnut was revealed to its fullest potential.
The cabinetmakers achieved considerable results in such furniture. German Baroque ornamentation was dominated from the 1660’s by heavy use of acanthus leaf motifs that had replaced conch shell forms, and by small arrow-like columns. Intarsia decorations became figurative from the start of the eighteenth century (bouquets of flowers were very popular) and no longer utilised vines, squares, or rectangular patterns. Baroque became increasingly more valid in Germany and this is clearly apparent with cabinets.
The older-style cabinet on bun feet was drastically altered. It changed into a four-door — later two-door — cabinet with heavy cornice, turned pilasters or columns, and angled fronts.
In terms of furniture, the northern parts of the Low Countries can be considered as an entity with northern Germany, although there were local style variations of course. Hamburg was an important furniture-making centre. The Hamburg four-door cabinet closely resembled Dutch Renaissance cabinets. In addition to these a fine two door cabinet appeared from Hamburg around 1700 with a straight cornice. The faсade comprised large decorated areas with continuous pilasters. A similar cabinet from the Dutch Republic of this time is the linen cabinet for storing pillows.
The partial cornices of cabinets from Dantzig (Gdansk) gave them a less fussy appearance and their square panels were decorated with mythological scenes. By contrast, cabinets from Lubeck had arched cornices. The Baroque influence ensured that cabinets from Holstein and Westphalia were embellished with figurative decorations.
The influence of the naturalistic Dutch floral intarsia decoration remained apparent throughout the eighteenth century. In addition to the main show pieces many painted and non carved pieces were made in northern Germany.
In southern Germany, new life was given to Renaissance cabinets at Ulm and cabinets from Augsburg were smaller and sometimes overwhelmingly decorated. The popularity of the Wellenschrank originating from Frankfurt was great from the beginning of the seventeenth century. This is a simply decorated cabinet in walnut veneer with an attractive curved front. Cabinets were also the most important item of furniture in northern Germany too.
There were various variants of these as elsewhere. Those from Hamburg were decorated with acanthus stems while Dantzig cabinets were smaller with one or two doors.
Commodes with pull-out leaf for writing and bureaux formed important pieces of furniture in the homes of the middle classes. Their chairs had spiral, turned, or cabriole legs and leather seats and these were also used to sit at table.
These chairs had high backs with heavy armrests and were decorated with carved banding and acanthus stems.
Many canopy beds with turned posts had large panels that were usually copiously decorated with intarsia inlay or carving. Gradually beds began to be made without valances.
Carving fell out of favour over the years so that cabinets had large plain surfaces on their fronts which gave them a monumental appearance.

Beds
From the earliest times beds have been endowed with particular importance: as places of rest and privacy, or as symbols of power. The bed was
often the most important legacy, as it was regarded as a possession of consequence, representing the continuity of the family.
EARLY BEDS
The earliest European free-standing beds were basic structures comprising roofs, posts, and bases; the fabric hangings that decorated them were of greater value, and when noblemen moved around the country, they took their bedding, curtains, and valances with them, leaving behind the plain wooden construction. An early type of bed was the truckle or trundle bed on wheels, which conveniently slid under a standing bed when not being used by a servant. By the early 16th century most beds in northern Europe were made from oak; the heads were panelled and decorated with coats of arms, lozenges, chevrons, and lettering; squat, carved posts were placed at the corners, and testers (canopies) were added in the middle of the century. This form was replaced during the 17th century with a beech frame, with tester, ornate cornice, and a back covered in the same fabric as the curtains. On grand beds the posts were tall and more slender, with luxurious hangings crowned with finials, covered with the same material as the valance, from which issued ostrich feathers. More ordinary beds were hung with cloth, linen, or moreen.
18TH-CENTURY BEDS
British beds became more subdued at the beginning of the 18th century. Cornices became straight and projecting, and fringes and tassels disappeared in favour of plain trimmings. “Angel”, or half-tester, beds, without posts at the foot, imitating the French lit a la duchesse, retained the height of their four-poster counterparts.
The panelled back was reintroduced on mahogany bedsteads of the first half of the century, with cabriole legs ending in lion’s-paw feet, and slender posts with vase-shaped plinths replacing silk-covered uprights. By 1775 the cornice had become simple in outline, straight or serpentine, still complemented by vase finials at the four corners; the surface was carved and/or gilded, and cheaper wood frames, such as beech, were painted. On Neo-classical beds the posts were often very elaborately carved with such ornament as fluting, paterae, lion masks, and acanthus. Red damask and moreen were the favoured materials for ordinary beds, although in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) George Hepplewhite (d.1786) recommended the use of white dimity for “an effect of elegance and neatness”. Late 18th-century beds had a much lighter feel, with decoration taking the form of narrow, fluted posts delicately carved with wheat ears or husks or painted with ribbons and garlands of flowers. These clean light lines were echoed in the Federal period beds made in North America by such makers as Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) in Salem, Massachusetts, and Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) in New York, the posts often decorated with Classical urn-form turnings with delicate reeding. Hangings were based on the designs in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) by Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) and Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide.
19TH-CENTURY BEDS
Beds in the French Empire style, particularly lits en bateau, are usually richly and exquisitely decorated in a restrained manner; the structure had large unbroken panelled surfaces veneered in both light and dark woods, which were sometimes used in combination, and decorative themes, usually represented in ormolu, included oak, laurel, and olive wreaths, shields, helmets, swans, lions, sphinxes, and vine-leaves. Beds were made in two principal types, both of which were meant to be placed in alcoves and seen from the side; therefore only one of the four faces was properly decorated. The first type was influenced by the beds of the Louis XVI era, with straight uprights in columnar or pilaster form, no roof or curtains or excess fabric, but lavishly decorated with bronze mounts. The second type was the lit en bateau, as it vaguely resembled a small boat, with two straight ends of equal height, and rolled over, linked by a steeply curved traverse. Both types were sometimes overhung with canopies in the style of earlier fashions. This is a type of bed particularly associated with the Biedermeier period.
The Empire style was the most important influence on English beds of the early 19th century, and numerous examples can be found in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) by George Smith (active c.1786-1828), and in the journal Repository of Arts (1809-28) by Rudolf Ackermann (1764-1834). The desired goal was to achieve “tasteful simplicity” by having less drapery; mahogany, or rosewood posts decorated with bronzed or gilded “Grecian ornaments”; domed testers, and hangings of red, yellow, or blue silk or calico trimmed with lace or a fringe. By the 1820s the French couch form beneath a canopy was used, although this fashion was short lived.
Throughout the later 19th century revivalism dominated fashions. ln Italy the Renaissance Revival, known as “Dantesque”, was interpreted in heavily carved beds and others decorated with ally certosina, a style of ivory and bone inlay, which had been popular in the 16th century. In North America such firms as Berkey & Gay (est. 1859) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, designed suites of bedroom furniture in the Renaissance Revival style, while the firm of Prudent Mallard (1809-79) made high-post beds at his workshop (est. 1838) in New Orleans. In Britain the “Jacobethan” Revival gave rise to the production of heavily carved four-poster beds. Tubular brass was used for bedsteads from the 1820s, and as manufacturing techniques improved during the century, cast-iron beds were made. Iron campaign beds, first made in the early 19th century, were designed to be easily assembled and transported for use on the battlefield.
• ALTERATIONS four-poster beds have often been reduced in height because of changing circumstances; check that the decoration and carving continue up the piece completely; also check to see where any reductions have been made, as the frames may have been cut to make the bed narrower or have added sections of wood to make the bed wider or longer — look along the rails for tell-talc signs in the colour and wear of the timber.
• MADE-UP BEDS these can be made up of elements from other beds, and usually it is only the front posts that will be original; the most commonly found made-up beds are tester beds from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Chests-on-chests
Although they  were inspired by the 16th-century meuble en deux corps that was associated with the period of Henry 11 in France (1547-59), it was not until the late 17th century that varguenos on chests, escritoires, and chests-on-chests (tallboys), without fall fronts or top sections, were recorded in England. Traditionally of oak, although gradual superseded by walnut versions during the reign of William and Mary (1689-1702), the earliest chests-on-chests are rare indeed; they are of a very simple form, with a low “waist”, and are supported on plain bun feet.
18TH-CENTURY WALNUT CHESTS-ON-CHESTS.

It was under Queen Anne ( 1702-14) and George I (1714-27) that walnut chests-on-chests became increasingly sophisticated. Usually with plain moulded cornices above two or three small frieze drawers and six or seven long drawers, standing on moulded
plinths and bun, or later bracket, feet, these early chests-on-chests are entirely dependent upon the figuring and colouring of the veneer for effect. Burr veneers, and particularly burr-walnut, were therefore highly prized, as this timber displays a far richer figuring than straight-grained walnut. By its very nature, burr-walnut (cut from diseased branches) does not exist in large sections, and so it is a sign of good quality when the veneer has been applied in strips, often mirror-matched, rather than in long sections, as the latter would suggest that the surface has been either reveneered or “grained”, whereby straight-grained walnut has been painted to simulate a burr wood. While the plainest, and indeed often the earliest, examples have little or no decoration,
save for a tidy construction of overlapping drawer-mouldings, during the first quarter of the 18th century chests-on-chests became increasingly architectural in form and elaborate in decoration, with dentilled cornices, canted and fluted angles, shaped bracket feet, crossbanding and featherbanding, and even chequerbanded inlay. The most sophisticated examples arc inlaid with a ,,Sunburst”, usually in ebony and walnut but occasionally in ivory, in the centre of the lower drawer, which has a concave front to create a sense of movement. A further development of this period was the secretaire chest-on-chest, in which the top drawer of the lower section has a fall front that conceals a fitted interior with writing-surface, drawers, and pigeon holes.
As with bachelors’ chests, originality colour, and patina are very important when looking at a chest-on-chest from this period. Elaborate crossbanding and inlay, unusually richly figured veneers, and replaced handles and feet are often later “improvements” to enhance the value of the piece. The handles, if original (in which case there is little reason for them all to have ever been
taken out), are a very good indicator of quality and craftmanship, and the finest early 18th-century examples are of richly lacquered brass with a pierced, sometimes engraved, backplates.
18TH-CENTURY MAHOGANY CHESTS-ON-CHESTS. Although provincial furniture-makers continued to work with indigenous woods such as oak, elm, and walnut, from the 1730s walnut was increasingly superseded by mahogany. y. Usually made in the solid, rather than veneered, mahogany chests-on-chests of the George 11 period (1727-60), built on the architectural legacy of their walnut forebears, reached their Rococo fruition in the 1760s through The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79). Frieze s, hitherto always plain, were now carved in relief with mythological deities in the Palladian style, which had been promoted by William Kent (c.1685-1748) in the 1730s, with stylized acanthus sprays in the manner of William Hallett (c.1707-81) in the 1740s, or with interlaced blind-fretwork in the Chinese manner popularized by William Chambers (1723-96) in the 1750s. Similarly, cornices that had previously been flat became pedimented, swan-necked, and segmental, even centred by splayed eagles or acanthus cartouches, while the restrained bracket feet of the early 18th century were discarded in favour of Gothic ogee-bracket feet, often with carved and applied decoration. Moreover, this Rococo ornament was echoed in the increasingly Elaborate gilt-bronze handles, often manufactured in Birmingham, with a rich lacquered finish, and cast with C-scrolls, ,lowers, and chinoiserie pagodas.
Perhaps the rarest chests-on-chests are the serpentine-fronted examples executed by
Chippendale and his contemporaries during the 1760s. Often still with carrying handles
both upper and lower sections, a surviving trait from the French 17th-century concept of a commode-on-stand, they have cabriole legs and scroll feet.
The Neo-classical style that swept through Europe from the late 1750s and 1760s heralded a return to linearity and architectural purity. This new Classical language, first expounded by architects such as James “Athenian” Stuart (1713-88) and Robert Adam (1728-92) and adopted by cabinet-makers such as Chippendale, John Mayhew 1-36-1811), and William Ince was inevitably reflected in chest patterns made during the reign of George III (1760-1820). Increasingly plain and usually of mahogany, with plain bracket or occasionally, square tapering feet and flat-dentilled cornice, the more refined George III chests-on-chests are inlaid with ebony lines inthe “Etruscan” manner, or embellished with marquetry decoration including trailed husks to the angles or paterae to the friezes. This Neo-classicism gave way to the lighter “French” style promoted by Thomas Sheraton
I 751-1806) and George Hepplewhite (d.1786) in their respective pattern-books, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802) and The Cabinet-Make• and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94). The chests-on-chests of the 1790s, often bow-fronted in form, are characterized by their plain decoration and splayed feet. Although the chest-on-chest was a popular form throughout the 19th century, later ones are usually inspired by 18th-century precedents and patterns.
AMERICAN CHESTS-ON-CHESTS
Mahogany chests-on-chests, also known as “double chests-of-drawers”, were to find their true expression in the hands of North American cabinet-makers such as John Cogswell (d.1818) and Stephen Badlam (17511815) in Boston, Massachusetts, Thomas Affleck (1740-95) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Elfe (1759-1825) in Charleston, South Carolina. Some country examples made by John Dunlap (1746-92) and Samuel Dunlap (1752-1830), and others in New Hampshire, are supported by free-standing frames. In some the top drawers of the lower sections are fitted as secretary drawers. Some examples from Massachusetts have blocked, serpentine, or bombe lower sections; a few made in Boston and Salem are elaborately ornamented with carved figures. Although Philadelphia chests-on-chests were made at the height of the Rococo period (1765-80), evidence of the Rococo is found only in the naturalistic carvings in the pediments and the swirled grain of the mahogany drawer fronts. A horizontal cornice separates the carved pediment with pierced tympanum from the unadorned facade. Chests from Charleston are closely modelled on English prototypes; some have removable broken-scroll pediments, and finely figured mahogany veneer glued of cores of straight-grained mahogany.

• FORM it is usual for a chest-on-chest to have three short drawers in the top section above three long drawers and three graduated drawers in the
bottom section.
• BEWARE beware of chests of drawers with three short drawers at the top: because of the desire for shorter pieces of furniture that fit in with the scale of houses today, the top sections of many tallboys have been provided with feet and made into chests-of-drawers;
it should be clear that the top has later veneering – the
top of the tallboy was not veneered, as it was too high to be seen; beware of tallboys inlaid with a sunburst (which is a particularly good feature), as this could be from a later date: on later examples the shaping is clearly more angular and awkward.
• QUALITY OF TIMBER this is one of the most important
considerations when assessing the value of tallboys.

High chests-of-drawers
Chests-on-stands, also known as high chests-ofdrawers or highboys, were a development of the chest-of-drawers. The form comprises a series of short drawers at the top, three or four long, graduated drawers beneath, and two or three drawers in the stand. The form was made in England from the end of the 17th century in walnut veneer, with double-twist turned supports, barley-twist or cup-and-cover legs, flat stretchers, and a plain moulded cornice. This piece of furniture became a singularly American form after c.1730.
AMERICAN HIGH CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
From the 1690s to the 1730s, following the popular London styles, cabinet-makers in New England and Pennsylvania made chests-of-drawers on tall barley-twist, scroll, and trumpet-turned legs, with matching dressing tables (lowboys) for use in the bedchamber. Their arched aprons (skirts) generally accommodated three drawers. Blind frieze drawers are found on some made in New York and New England. The finest are veneered with richly figured burr-walnut, their drawers
outlined with herringbone veneer. Others are made
of solid maple or cherry, and some are painted. Several from Boston, with four cabriole legs instead of six turned ]cgs, have their original japanned decoration.
By the 1750s high chests with broken-arch pediments had come into vogue. The Philadelphia high chest was tighter and more graceful, with a richly carved middle drawer in the lower section, the uppercase, like the lower, flanked by fluted quarter columns, and topped
by a richly carved broken-arch pediment with carved rosettes, a cartouche in the centre, and flame finials at the corners. The typanum of the arch, no longer housing a drawer, was filled with Rococo streamers, leaves, and grasses, while carving decorated the apron and knees. The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) influenced the design of a horizontal cornices, which in the 1760s and 1770s separated the carved scrolled pediments from the unadorned facades of the drawer fronts.
High chests made away from the coastal cities are country versions of those made in urban centres. Those made in Lancaster County inland Pennsylvania, reflect the Philadelphia style, while those from the back country of the Shenandoah Valley are largely influenced by Pennsylvania forms that the settlers of that region were familiar with; eccentric maple chests, stained to simulate mahogany, were made in New Hampshire by the Dunlap family, suggesting their Scottish/ Irish origin. In New York and the South they preferred the chest-on-chest form.
• CONSTRUCTION some flat-top high chests were fitted with pedestals for displaying ceramics.
• Alterations high chests were made in two parts, which were sometimes separated; the top was often given feet and sold as a chest-of-drawers, and the bottom given a new top and sold as an over-size dressing table or serving table; even in their altered states, they are considered of value.
• COLLECTING in the USA high chests have long been the most highly priced type of furniture; matching high chests and dressing tables will achieve a premium.