Furniture History: Cabinets and Dressers

... A dresser with old belongings,
Preserves the memory of those before.
Made by craftsmen to honour its purpose,
May it stand for many years more…

(Alexander Ignatov)

Practical and decorative cabinets changed in style from the simple, low cabinet with drawers found in most 19th-century homes to the sophisticated lacquered dresser with gilded-metal decoration created by Martin Carlin for relatives of Louis XVI.

All cabinets and dressers served a shared purpose: functional storage furniture later became a symbol of the owner's prosperity and a measure of personal taste.

Cabinet forms developed from a small, low chest into a tall two-part cabinet with drawers standing on four legs.

Famous cabinetmakers decorated these cabinets with veneer, marquetry, parquetry or painted decoration.

The enduring popularity of cabinets preserved examples from different periods, and historic pieces continue to provide pleasure today.

Types of dressers

Bombe dresser, 1750. A dresser type with a swollen, irregular lower section.

Wave-front dresser. A dresser type with an outward line formed by two curves.

Bow-front sideboard form

Cabinets with drawers rank among the most practical furniture pieces, and at least one cabinet in every room became a common arrangement.

The basic form of the chest of drawers developed in England around 1650. Cabinets of this type used frame-and-panel construction until European craftsmen who followed Charles II to England after the Restoration of 1660 introduced a new technology that gradually replaced traditional methods. The assembled construction consisted of a frame made from inexpensive woods such as spruce and oak. The frame parts used dovetail joints and were later covered with veneers from fine woods such as walnut.

Many cabinets from this period featured marquetry and parquetry decoration. During the reign of Queen Anne, the aesthetic qualities of the natural grain in walnut veneer became more important, including the arrangement of the grain across the drawer and the cabinet as a whole.

The main decorative strength of marquetry came from the ability of craftsmen to create richly coloured compositions despite the limited colour range naturally available in wood. Refined tonal variations allowed marquetry works to rival paintings. Improved tools and access to new wood species from Asia, Africa and the Americas made this development possible.

Craftsmen used many specialised techniques to enrich the pictorial effect and create an illusion of depth. Techniques included staining, engraving, scorching and colouring individual details. Typical furniture motifs included geometric designs, floral and botanical patterns, architectural landscapes, trophies, musical instruments and genre scenes.

Geometric patterns are associated with the French 17th-century master Jean Macé. Jean Macé also made parquet floors. Queen Anne of Austria commissioned one of these floors, known as parquet marquetй, for the Palais-Royal, and the floor astonished Paris. The term parquetry has since been associated with geometric decoration on floors and furniture.

The widespread use of floral motifs in French furniture decoration during the same period is thought to be connected with the work of the celebrated Pierre Gole, who worked at the Gobelins factory under Louis XIV.

By the middle of the 18th century, marquetry had become one of the main criteria for assessing the skill of cabinetmakers throughout Europe. Each national school developed a distinct character and leading specialists, including Giuseppe Maggiolini in Italy, Abraham and David Roentgen in Germany, and John Linnell, Thomas Chippendale, William Ince and John Mayhew in England. France developed the largest school, with dozens of celebrated cabinetmakers, including André-Charles Boulle, Antoine Gaudreau and Charles Cressent, Jean-François Oeben and Henri Riesener, Robert Godefroy and the Van Risenburgh family, Jean-François Leleu and René Dubois, among many others.

French styles and forms strongly influenced European furniture design during the 18th century. Rectangular cabinets with drawers remained popular in England until the middle of the century, while French wave-front cabinet forms gained increasing public recognition.

A semicircular bow-front cabinet type appeared in the 1770s. The semicircular bow-front cabinet remained popular into the following century, like the rectangular cabinet. Pine became a widely used cabinet material among poorer households in the 19th century, while affluent buyers preferred mahogany.

Richly decorated cabinets with drawers, designed for salons and drawing rooms, first appeared in 18th-century France and later spread throughout Europe.

Masters in many countries devoted particular attention to producing this prestigious furniture type. Dressers included drawers and doors, with additional sets of drawers sometimes placed behind the doors.

Marquetry, parquetry, painted decoration, porcelain, Venetian mosaic panels, Boulle work and gilded-metal details stand out among the many decorative materials and techniques used on these pieces.

Known in England as French dressers, these pieces usually had wooden tops. Wooden tops were as popular in England as marble tops were in France.

The typically English dresser form first appeared in the 1740s. Early examples resembled wave-front cabinets or bombe dressers, but the form acquired a lowered front a century later and became more rectangular during the Regency period.

Dressers remained fashionable in many European countries throughout the 19th century.

Based on: Antique Furniture: An Illustrated Guide to Identifying Furniture Styles. Tim Forrest.