19TH CENTURY ANTIQUE MASSACHUSETTS MAHOGANY & TIGER MAPLE HEPPLEWHITE FOUR DRAWER BACHELOR'S CHEST / DRESSER
Bay Colony Antiques is pleased to offer for sale this wonderful 19th century antique Massachusetts Hepplewhite Mahogany chest of drawers / dresser. We purchased this from a local Hampshire County home, and believe it was made right here in the Connecticut River Valley, likely in Franklin County around Ashfield, Deerfield, or Greenfield. We don’t want to rule out that it could have been made a tiny bit further south in Franklin County, around Northampton, Hadley, or Amherst. We have a warehouse in Springfield and because of our location in the heart of the Connecticut River Valley we probably handle more CRV furniture than anybody we know. The chest has four drawers with book-matched crotch Mahogany faces and a banded curly maple inlay along the edges. The contrasting woods create a stunning visual effect which can also be found along edge of the top and the shaped skirt & sides. We love the variation of the French feet with taller than usual proportions and a nice subtle splay. Our photo showing the back of the chest best shows their unique construction & form.
At some point in the chest's life, it received a professional & thorough restoration. Most of the elements are original, but we’d like to point out that the backboards were replaced at the time of restoration along with the glue blocks underneath the front skirt and the rear support blocks for the legs. The chest began its life with wood pulls which were later upgraded to brass pulls which is evident from the plugs between the brass nuts that can be seen on the inside of the drawer faces. This isn’t unusual for chests of this era as brass was still quite expensive and wasn’t always readily available to early American cabinet makers. The pull on the right side of the second drawer is a replacement but it blends in very well and we honestly didn’t notice until now as we were writing this up. The top drawer doesn’t have the plugs and there are some slight differences in the dovetail joinery which tipped us off to the top drawer having been restored as well. Whoever performed the restoration was extremely talented and it’s practically unnoticeable, but we will still bring it to our client's attention as part of our full disclosure policy. We of all people understand it can be difficult buying antiques off of pictures alone so we try to point out any alterations we notice upon inspection no matter how small or inconsequential they may be. After roughly two centuries of use, almost all furniture requires some form of maintenance and the work performed on this chest will greatly increase the quality of life of its next owner, especially if you plan to use it every day. The chest measures 36 1/4” wide x 18 3/4” deep x 36 3/4” tall.
