THE chest was a most important piece of furniture in households of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It served as table, seat, or trunk, besides its accepted purpose to hold valuables of various kinds.

Chests are mentioned in the earliest colonial inventories. Ship chests, board chests, joined chests, wainscot chests with drawers, and carved chests are some of the entries; but the larger portion are inventoried simply as chests.

All woodwork—chests, stools, or tables—which was framed together, chiefly with mortise and tenon, was called joined, and joined chests and wainscot chests were probably terms applied to panelled chests to distinguish them from those of plain boards, which were common in every household, and which were brought to this country on the ships with the colonists, holding their scanty possessions.

The oldest carved chests were made without drawers beneath, and were carved in low relief in designs which appear upon other pieces of oak furniture of the same period.

Illustration 1 shows a chest now in Memorial Hall, at Deerfield, which was taken from the house where the Indians made their famous attack in 1704. The top of the chest is missing, and the feet, which were continuations of the stiles, are worn away or sawed off. The design and execution of the carving are unusually fine, combining several different patterns, all of an early date. Chests were carved in the arch design with three or four panels, but seldom as elaborately as this, which was probably made before 1650.

Illustration 2 shows a remarkable chest now owned by Mrs. Caroline Foote Marsh of Claremont-on-the-James, Virginia. Until recently it has remained in the family of D’Olney Stuart, whose ancestor, of the same name, was said to be of the royal Stuart blood, and who brought it with him when he fled to Virginia after the beheading of Charles I.

The feet have been recently added, and should be large balls; otherwise the chest is original in every respect. It is made entirely of olive-wood, the body being constructed of eight-inch planks. The decoration is produced with carving and burnt work. Upon the inside of the lid are three panels, the centre one containing a portrait in burnt work of James I. with his little dog by his side. The two side panels portray the Judgment of Solomon, the figures being clad in English costumes; in the left panel the two kneeling women claim the child; in the right the child is held up for the executioner to carry out Solomon’s command to cut it in two. The outside of the lid has the Stuart coat of arms burnt upon it. Upon the front of the chest are four knights, and between them are three panels, surrounded by a moulding, which is now missing around the middle panel. These three panels are carved and burnt with views of castles; and around the lock, above the middle panel, are carved the British lions supporting the royal coat of arms. The chest measures six feet in length and is twenty-four inches high.

Chests with drawers are mentioned as early as 1650, and the greater number of chests found in New England have one or two drawers.

Illustration 3 shows a chest with one drawer owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, made about 1660. There is no carving upon this chest, which is panelled and ornamented with turned spindles and drops. The stiles are continued below the chest to form the feet.

A chest with two drawers is shown in Illustration 4, made probably in Connecticut, as about fifty of this style have been found there, chiefly in Hartford County. The top, back, and bottom are of pine, the other portions of the chest being of American oak. The design of the carving is similar upon all these chests, and the turned drop ornament upon the stiles, and the little egg-shaped pieces upon the drawers, appear upon all. They have been found with one or two drawers or none, but usually with two. This chest is in Memorial Hall, at Deerfield.

A chest with two drawers owned by Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem, is shown in Illustration 5. The mouldings upon the front of the frame are carved in a simple design. The wood in the centre of the panels is stained a dark color, the spindles and mouldings being of oak like the rest of the chest.

A number of chests carved in a manner not seen elsewhere have been found in and about Hadley, Massachusetts, and this has given them the name of Hadley chests. The carving in all is similar, upon the front only, the ends being panelled, and all have three panels above the drawers, with initials carved in the middle panel. The other two panels have a conventionalized tulip design, which is carved upon the rest of the front, in low relief. The carving is usually stained while the background is left the natural color of the wood.

Illustration 6 shows a Hadley chest with one drawer owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston.

Carved chests with three drawers are rarely found in any design, although the plain board chests were made with that number.

Illustration 7 and Illustration 8 show chests mounted upon frames. Illustration 8 stands thirty-two inches high and is thirty inches wide, and is made of oak, with one drawer. It is in the collection of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Illustration 7 is slightly taller, with one drawer. This chest is in the collection of the late Major Ben: Perley Poore, at Indian Hill. Such chests upon frames are rarely found, and by some they are supposed to have been made for use as desks; but it seems more probable that they were simple chests for linen, taking the place of the high chest of drawers which was gradually coming into fashion during the latter half of the seventeenth century, and possibly being its forerunner. Chests continued in manufacture and in use until after 1700, but they were probably not made later than 1720 in any numbers, as several years previous to that date they were inventoried as “old,” a word which was as condemnatory in those years as now, as far as the fashions were concerned.

Chests of drawers appear in inventories about 1645. They were usually made of oak and were similar in design to the chests of that period.

The oak chest of drawers in Illustration 9 is owned by E. R. Lemon, Esq., of the Wayside Inn, Sudbury. It has four drawers, and the decoration is simply panelling. The feet are the large balls which were used upon chests finished with a deep moulding at the lower edge. The drop handles are of an unusual design, the drop being of bell-flower shape. This chest of drawers was found in Malden.

Illustration 10 shows a very fine oak chest of four drawers, owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston. The spindles upon this chest are unusually good, especially the large spindles upon the stiles. There is a band of simple carving between the drawers. The ends are panelled and the handles are wooden knobs.

From the time that high chests of drawers were introduced, during the last part of the seventeenth century, the use of oak in furniture gradually ceased, and its place was taken by walnut or cherry, and later by mahogany. With the disuse of oak came a change in the style of chests, which were no longer made in the massive panelled designs of earlier years.

The moulding around the drawers is somewhat of a guide to the age of a piece of furniture. The earliest moulding was large and single, upon the frame around the drawers. The next moulding consisted of two strips, forming a double moulding. These strips were in some cases separated by a plain band about half an inch in width.

Later still, upon block front pieces a small single moulding bordered the frame around the drawers, while upon Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture the moulding was upon the drawer itself. Early in the eighteenth century, about 1720, high chests were made with no moulding about the drawers, the edges of which lapped over the frame.

Another guide to the age of a piece of furniture made with drawers is found in the brass handles, which are shown in Illustration 11 in the different styles in use from 1675. The handle and escutcheon lettered A, called a “drop handle,” was used upon six-legged high chests, and sometimes upon chests. The drop may be solid or hollowed out in the back. The shape of the plate and escutcheon varies, being round, diamond, or shield shaped, cut in curves or points upon the edges, and generally stamped. It is fastened to the drawer front by a looped wire, the ends of which pass through a hole in the wood and are bent in the inside of the drawer.

A handle and escutcheon of the next style are lettered B. They are found upon six-legged and early bandy-legged high chests. The plate of the handle is of a type somewhat earlier than the escutcheon. Both are stamped, and the bail of the handle is fastened with looped wires.

Letter C shows the earliest styles of handles with the bail fastened into bolts which screw into the drawer. Letters D, E, and F give the succeeding styles of brass handles, the design growing more elaborate and increasing in size. These are found upon desks, chests of drawers, commodes, and other pieces of furniture of the Chippendale period.

The earliest form of high chest of drawers had six turned legs, four in front and two in the back, with stretchers between the legs, and was of Dutch origin, as well as the high chest with bandy or cabriole legs, which was some years later in date. Six-legged chests were made during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and were usually of walnut, either solid or veneered upon pine or whitewood; other woods were rarely employed.

The earliest six-legged chests were made with the single moulding upon the frame about the drawers, and with two drawers at the top, which was always flat, as the broken arch did not appear in furniture until about 1730. The lower part had but one long drawer, and the curves of the lower edge were in a single arch.

The six-legged high chest of drawers in Illustration 12 belongs to F. A. Robart, Esq., of Boston. It is veneered with the walnut burl and is not of the earliest type of the six-legged chest, but was made about 1705-1715. The handles are the drop handles shown in letter A, and the moulding upon the frame around the drawers is double. There is a shallow drawer in the heavy cornice at the top, and the lower part contains three drawers.

Dressing-tables were made to go with these chests of drawers, but with four instead of six legs. Their tops were usually veneered, and they were, like the high chests, finished with a small beading around the curves of the lower edge.

The dressing-table in Illustration 13 also belongs to Mr. Robart, and shows the style in which that piece of furniture was made.

The names “high-boy” and “low-boy” or “high-daddy” and “low-daddy” are not mentioned in old records and were probably suggested by the appearance of the chests mounted upon their high legs.

High chests, both six-legged and bandy-legged, with their dressing-tables were sometimes decorated with the lacquering which was so fashionable during the first part of the eighteenth century.

Illustration 14 shows a dressing-table or low-boy from the Bolles collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is covered with japanning, in Chinese designs. This dressing-table is the companion to a lacquered high-boy, with a flat top, in the Bolles collection. The handle is like letter C, in Illustration 11. That and the moulding around the drawers place its date about 1720.

Coming originally from the Orient, japanned furniture became fashionable, and consequently the process of lacquering or japanning was practised by cabinet-makers in France and England about 1700, and soon after in this country.

The earliest high chests with cabriole or bandy legs are flat-topped, and have two short drawers, like the six-legged chests, at the top. They are made of walnut, or of pine veneered with walnut. The curves at the lower edge are similar to those upon six-legged chests and are occasionally finished with a small bead-moulding.

The bandy-legged high-boy in Illustration 15 is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq. It is veneered with walnut and has a line of whitewood inlaid around each drawer. The moulding upon the frame surrounding the drawers is the separated double moulding, and the handles are of the early stamped type shown in Illustration 11, letter B. The arrangement of drawers in both lower and upper parts is the same as in six-legged chests. A reminder of the fifth and sixth legs is left in the turned drops between the curves of the lower edge.

Steps to display china or earthenware were in use during the second quarter of the eighteenth century.

They were generally movable pieces, made like the steps in Illustration 15, in two or three tiers, the lower tier smaller than the top of the high chest, forming with the chest-top a set of graduated shelves upon the front and sides.

The broken arch, which had been used in chimney pieces during the seventeenth century, made its appearance upon furniture in the early years of the eighteenth century, and the handsomest chests were made with the broken arch top.

A lacquered or japanned high-boy in the Bolles collection, owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is shown in Illustration 16. It is of later date than the lacquered dressing-table in Illustration 14, having the broken arch. The lacquering is inferior in design to that upon the dressing-table, and at the top is a scroll design following the outline of the top drawers and the moulding of the broken arch.

A large and a small fan are lacquered upon the lower middle drawer, and on the upper one is a funny little pagoda top, with a small fan, both in lacquer. The handles are of an early type, and the moulding around the drawers is a double separated one. Such japanned pieces are rare and of great value.

A fine high chest is shown in Illustration 17, from the Warner house in Portsmouth. It is of walnut and is inlaid around each drawer. The upper middle drawer is inlaid in a design of pillars with the rising sun between them, and below the sun are inlaid the initials J. S. and the date 1733.

The lower drawer has a star inlaid between the pillars, and a star is inlaid upon each end of the case. The knobs at the top are inlaid with the star, and the middle knob ends in a carved flame.

J. S. was John Sherburne, whose son married the daughter of Colonel Warner. The legs of this chest were ruthlessly sawed off many years ago, in order that it might stand in a low-ceilinged room, and it is only in comparatively recent years that it has belonged to the branch of the family now owning the Warner house. A double moulding runs upon the frame around the drawers, and the original handles were probably small, of the type in Illustration 11, letter C.

A walnut high chest of a somewhat later type is shown in Illustration 18, belonging to Mrs. Rufus Woodward of Worcester. It is of walnut veneered upon pine, and the shells upon the upper and lower middle drawers are gilded, for they are, of course, carved from the pine beneath the veneer. The frame has the separated double moulding around the drawers. A row of light inlaying extends around each drawer, and in the three long drawers of the upper part the inlaying simulates the division into two drawers, which is carried out in the top drawers of both the upper and lower parts. The large handles and the fluted columns at the sides would indicate that this chest was made about 1760-1770.

Illustration 19 shows a “high-boy” and “low-boy” of walnut, owned by the writer. The drawers, it will be seen, lap over the frame. The “high-boy” is original in every respect except the ring handles, which are new, upon the drawers carved with the rising sun or fan design.

It was found in the attic of an old house, with the top separate from the lower part and every drawer out upon the floor, filled with seeds, rags, and—kittens, who, terrified by the invasion of the antique hunter, scurried from their resting-places, to the number of nine or ten, reminding one of Lowell’s lines in the “Biglow Papers”:—

“But the old chest won’t sarve her gran’son’s wife,
(For ’thout new furnitoor what good in life?)
An’ so old claw foot, from the precinks dread
O’ the spare chamber, slinks into the shed,
Where, dim with dust, it fust and last subsides
To holdin’ seeds an’ fifty other things besides.”

But carefully wrapped up and tucked away in one of the small drawers were the torches for the upper and the acorn-shaped drops for the lower part. These drops were used as long as the curves followed those of the lower part of six-legged chests, but were omitted when more graceful curves and lines were used, as the design of high chests gradually differed from the early types.

The “low-boy,” or dressing-table, was made to accompany every style of high chest. The low-boy in Illustration 19 shows the dressing-table which was probably used in the room with the bandy-legged high-boy, flat-topped or with the broken arch cornice. It is lower than the under part of the high-boy, which is, however, frequently supplied with a board top and sold as a low-boy, but which can be easily detected from its height and general appearance. The measurements of this high-boy and low-boy are

HIGH-BOY, lower part	LOW-BOY
3 feet high	2 feet 4 inches high
3 feet 1½ inches long	2 feet 6 inches long
21 inches deep	18 inches deep

The high-boy measures seven feet from the floor to the top of the cornice.

High chests and dressing-tables were made of maple, often very beautifully marked, in the same style as the chests of walnut and cherry. The high chest was sometimes made with the drawers extending nearly to the floor, and mounted upon bracket, ogee, or claw-and-ball feet. This was called a double chest, or chest-upon-chest.

The double chest in Illustration 20 is in the Warner house at Portsmouth. It is of English walnut, and the lower part is constructed with a recessed cupboard like the writing-table in Illustration 106. The handles upon this chest are very massive, and upon the ends of both the upper and lower parts are still larger handles with which to lift the heavy chest.

A double chest which was probably made in Newport, Rhode Island, about 1760-1770, is shown in Illustration 21. The lower part is blocked and is carved in the same beautiful shells as Illustration 31 and Illustration 106. This double chest was made for John Brown of Providence, the leader of the party who captured the Gaspee in 1772, and one of the four famous Brown brothers, whose name is perpetuated in Brown University. This chest is now owned by a descendant of John Brown, John Brown Francis Herreshoff, Esq., of New York.

A low-boy of unusual design, in the Warner house, is shown in Illustration 22. The front is blocked, with a double moulding upon the frame around the drawers. The bill of lading in Illustration 109 specified a dressing-table, brought from England to this house in 1716, but so early a date cannot be assigned to this piece, although it is undoubtedly English, like the double chair in Illustration 212, which has similar feet, for such lions’ feet are almost never found upon furniture made in this country.

The shape of the cabriole leg is poor, the curves being too abrupt, but the general effect of the low-boy is very rich. The handles are the original ones, and they with the fluted columns and blocked front determine the date of the dressing-table to be about 175O.

The low-boy in Illustration 23 is probably of slightly later date. It has the separated double moulding upon the frame around the drawers, and the curves of the lower part are like the early high chests, but the carving upon the cabriole legs, and the fluted columns at the corners, like those in Chippendale’s designs, indicate that it was made after 1750. Upon the top are two pewter lamps, one with glass lenses to intensify the light; a smoker’s tongs, and a pipe-case of mahogany, with a little drawer in it to hold the tobacco. This dressing-table is owned by Walter Hosmer, Esq.

The little chest of drawers in Illustration 24 belongs to Daniel Gilman, Esq., of Exeter, New Hampshire, and was inherited by him. It is evidently adapted from the high-boy, in order to make a smaller and lower piece, and it is about the size of a small bureau. The upper part is separate from the lower part, and is set into a moulding, just as the upper part of a high-boy sets into the lower. The handles and the moulding around the drawers are of the same period as the ones upon the chest in Illustration 20.

The furniture made in and around Philadelphia was much more elaborately carved and richly ornamented than that of cabinet-makers further north, and the finest tables, high-boys, and low-boys that are found were probably made there. They have large handles, like letter F, in Illustration 11, and finely carved applied scrolls.

The richest and most elaborate style attained in such pieces of furniture is shown in the high chest in Illustration 25, which is one of the finest high chests known. The proportions are perfect, and the carving is all well executed. This chest was at one time in the Pendleton collection, and is now owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.

Such a chest as this was in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mind when he wrote: “After all, the moderns have invented nothing better in chamber furniture than those chests which stand on four slender legs, and send an absolute tower of mahogany to the ceiling, the whole terminating in a fantastically carved summit.”

The dressing-table and looking-glass in Illustration 26 are also owned by Mr. Flagler. The looking-glass is described upon page 385. The dressing-table is a beautiful and dainty piece of furniture of the same high standard as the chest last described. The carving upon the cabriole legs is unusually elaborate and well done. It will be noticed that the lower edge of these pieces is no longer finished in the simple manner of the earlier high-boys and low-boys, but is cut in curves, which vary with each piece of furniture.

In Illustration 365 upon page 378 is a low-boy of walnut, owned by the writer, of unusually graceful proportions, the carved legs being extremely slender. The shell upon this low-boy is carved in the frame below the middle drawer instead of upon it, as is usual.

The dressing-table in Illustration 27 also belongs to the writer. It is of walnut, like the majority of similar pieces, and is finely carved but is not so graceful as Illustration 365. The handles are the original ones and are very large and handsome.

High chests and the accompanying dressing-tables continued in use until the later years of the eighteenth century.

Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, contains designs for chests of drawers, extending nearly to the floor, with bracket feet, one having fluted columns at the corners, and an urn with garlands above the flat top. It is probable, however, that high chests of drawers were not made in any number after 1790.

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