The very good quality Regency quilted mahogany chest of relatively tall proportions having a rectangular top with a reeded edge and outset rounded corners, above two long drawers and a further long deep drawer with a double front having a compartment to its interior, each with later brass ring drop handles, all being oak lined and cockbeaded, flanked by fluted columns and raised on turned bun feet, the whole surviving from the early nineteenth century.
Unknown.
The influences on Regency design and taste were legion; from Sheraton’s neoclassicism, Henry Holland’s Anglo-French taste, the Greek revival of Thomas Hope, and the Chinoiserie favoured by the Prince Regent, to an interest in the Gothic, Old English and rustic. The Regency attitude to interior decoration often involved treating each room as a unit with individual furnishings and wall decorations in harmony of theme or colour scheme.
This chest displays some of the very early William IV sensibilities with the furniture of the Regency era becoming slightly more robust and chunky but retaining all of the Regency trademarks. The compartment to the lower drawer is a nice touch and the proportions of this piece are exquisite.
The proportion, colour and quality of this piece are all superb and what with the rather unusual drawer configuration make it a very desirable piece of furniture indeed.
The drawers glide smoothly, the whole is sturdy and in good original order aside from the handles, which are slightly later replacements we believe, though they are of the period. The mahogany has taken on a superb patina, with its quilted surface, and commensurate with age has a few areas of loss and surface markings. There are some small losses to the cockbeading though overall the whole remains an attractive piece in its entirety. We have given her an oil and hand waxed the whole but most importantly have otherwise left her as is. The original backboards have been repaired with some fabric tape.
By appointment only.
