Description:
Late seventeenth-century style joined chest with four drawers in oak and pine, geometric front panels, and turnip feet. Myrna Kaye writes: "...a sophisticated chest of four drawers of late-seventeenth century style, the drawers are not lockable. The detective notices on first inspecting the facade...that although the drawers all have keyhold escutcheons, they have no actual keyholes...One drawer afater another reveals that none of the drawer fronts ever had a metal lock, nor any of the drawer bottoms a spring lock...When a chest relies almost entirely on its decorated drawer facades for visual impact, as this one does, four replaced drawer fronts could certainly raise doubts about the whole...Under examination, the first drawer revelas extensive 'woodworm' holes in the drawer sides. the holes do not pass the needle test. As the needle goes completely through the 'wormhole,' it punctuates any theory that the drawer is genuine. All four drawers tell the same story....The sides of the drill hole-ridden drawer were gratuitously worn where they ran over drawer-supports in the case. Drawers of joined chest are usually hung, grooved on the outside of their sides to fit and slide over slats in the case. Joiners made such drawer sides of oak because the mighty wood endures a lot of use without wearing away. The grooves on the drawer side of this fake are worn much more than those on genuinely old drawers. And the underside of the drawer bottom has been 'worn' along the side by fakers. Beware of gratuitous wear. The case itself is stained to look old, with the same red-black color applied to both pine and oak. The forgery may not have looked old enough to its maker, for he added something 'new.' The 'later' front bracket (above the 'restored' turned ball feet) are red herrings. Don't be distracted by later 'additions' and 'repairs.'...Chest of drawers - chests with nothing but drawers - were a new form in the seventeenth century, so joined chests of drawers of this period are not common. The standard joined chest had a lid."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2046 |
