Mahogany Chest on Chest (ca.1790)

The Completed Chest

The chest on chest or double chest is, as the name states, a chest stacked on a second chest. Today the form is seen in one piece construction but originally it would have been composed of two separate chests. The bottom chest is slightly larger in most forms and has molding attached to the top which hides the joint where the top is stacked. The upper chest is capped with a molded pediment that gives a bit of lift and completion to the form. 

The chest I recently worked on dates to the fourth quarter of the 18th century. Three details point towards this time period. The first is the use of a straight bracket foot on the bottom, which appears in case pieces during that period. The second indication is the orientation of the drawer bottoms from left to right, instead of front to back. This orientation was a development of the second half of the 18th century and the change was made so that the wood could expand and contract easier and less cracking would occur due to humidity changes. The third indication of age is the use of brass cased locks in the drawers. All of the locks are present in this piece and appear to be original. The use of brass cases over iron cases originated during this period. Beyond the dating of the chest I can tell by the construction methods and the woods used that this chest on chest was produced in England.

The piece as it came to me was in need of a new finish. The existing finish was modern and had begun to deteriorate. There were also several routine repairs one would expect to see in an 18th century piece of furniture. Below are a few photos of the piece during the repair process followed by two photos of the completed chest on chest.

These first few photos show the chest on chest as it was when it came into the shop.

 

This photo of the side of the top shows the beautiful grain of the veneered sides of the chest and also a bit of missing astragal molding that transitions the pediment to the case side.

These next two photos show the chest with the finish removed.

The boards that cover the joinery where the drawer dividers attach to the case sides were loose. This is due to shrinkage of the case sides. The clamps on the left and right sides of the case are holding these covers in place while the glue dries, as seen in the two photos below.

One side of the upper chest had a significant crack running from top to bottom. This again was due to wood movement. A long tapered wedge was glued in the crack, as seen in the photo below. The wedge was left proud while the glue dried, and then pared flush to the side once the glue had set.

The opposite side of the chest had loose veneer where the side had warped. The deep clamps in the photos below are gluing this down. The replaced astragal molding is also being glued in place on the top of the case.

After the glue had set, the astragal molding was fine tuned and sanded. The patch is seen below just above the blue tape.

Many of the drawers were missing the cockbeading that frames the drawer faces. This was all replaced and any loose beading was glued in place. a replaced section is seen in the photo below.

The top of the upper chest had a crack in it which was repaired the same as the crack in the side mentioned above. The photos below show the wedge as it was refined. This first photo shows the wedge inserted and gluing in place.

Once the glue had dried, the wedge was pared flush to the top using a combination of a smoothing plane and a hand chisel.

the wedge was further leveled with scraping and sanding. It was later stained to match the color of the top.

This photo shows the top half of the chest after the repairs were made and the entire piece was sanded. The chest on chest was selectively stained to match the natural color of the wood on the drawer fronts.

One feature that this particular chest had was what is referred  to as a brushing slide. This is a board that sits directly above the long drawers in the bottom half of the case. It has two brass pulls that allow the user to pull the board out. The board would have originally been covered with a baize.

Contrary to what most people would assume, This panel was not meant to be used as writing surface, but the purpose was to have a surface to lay out clothes for brushing off, hence the name brushing slide.

The slide in this piece had warped and the felt that was on the piece was frayed and loose in many places. The existing felt can be seen in the photo below.

Once all of the felt and glue was removed, the surface was leveled with a jack plane, as seen in the photos below.

After the new finish was applied, it was masked and glue was applied to the wood sub surface, as seen below.

The new baize was then laid out and smoothed.

The next step was to define the edges of the slide and trim the excess baize from the slide.

The restored slide with new baize applied.

This last photo shows the brushing slide extended from the lower case.

These following photos show the restored chest on chest. The light was a little dark, so the color appears a little darker than it really is. The photo above shows the color a little better.

George III Mahogany Chest on Chest (ca. 1770)

The restored chest on chest

This post concerns the restoration of a Mahogany chest on chest I recently restored. The piece is from the British Isles and dates to the second half of the 18th Century. I have a suspicion that the piece may have been made in Ireland or Scotland, but it is safe to say that it was in the style of British manufacture. As far as Chest on Chests are concerned, this was a really nice example that had suffered several bad restorations in its time, but more on that later. The top half of the chest is capped with a cornice containing dental molding above a well executed frieze displaying patterned blind fretwork. Below the cornice the upper half of the chest has two short drawers above three long drawers, each graduating in size by 1 inch. Above the three graduated drawers on the bottom half is a brushing slide (a sliding shelf used to dust garments). Below the lower three drawers are four robust ogee bracket feet. Besides the well executed ornamentation on this chest, the sheer size of it is sure to impress the viewer. This was a chest made to impress and was made for someone who not only had a lot of clothes, but also a lot of money! 

The condition of the chest when it was presented to me was quite bad, with many repairs needed and a complete replacement of the finish. This last part I did not take take lightly, and tried first to remove some of the over finishing that had been done in the past, but once I got to the base finish I realized that it was a Lacquer that had yellowed in the pore of the chest, making it necessary to completly remove the finish and start from scratch. Below is a photo of the top followed by a photo of the bottom half. This is what the piece looked like when it came to my shop.

In this next photo, you can see the wood coming through the darker opaque section of the over finish, It was as if someone has smeared brown paint on the surface of the chest. The yellowish tint beneath the brown smear turned out to be the yellowed Lacquer finish.

This next photo shows the finish being removed, with the bare wood coming through. The following photo shows the same drawer  with the finish removed.

after the finish was removed, the repairs began. One particular repair that happens in a chest like this is that the board which covers over the dovetails for the drawer dividers becomes pushed away from the sides. The photo below shows this and the following photo shows the gap created in detail.

This gap is caused by the sides shrinking over time. There are boards which are laid across the grain inside the chest which guide the drawer as it moves in and out. Since these boards are running perpendicular, they do not shrink, and they push out against the dovetail cover, causing the separation. Below is a photo of one of the problem boards.

The drawer guides were each removed and cut down so that the dovetail covers could be glued back in place. Once they were cut to size they were reattached. This next photo shows the divider between the short drawers being glued.

This photo shows the guides mentioned before trimmed and laid out for reattachment.

To glue the guides in place, short pieces of wood were wedged in place to hold the guides as the glue dried as seen in the photo below.

This photo shows the board which guides the short drawers from moving side to side being glued in place. The process for holding the board while the glue dried was the same.

After all of the close ups, I thought it would be good to offer a shot of all of these repairs being made. The red clamps on the sides are holding the dovetail covers in place as the glue dried.

Similar repairs were made to the bottom case. In addition, the feet on the bottom case needed to be reattached where they had broken. Two sections of the broken feet were missing and needed to be made. To cut the ogee profile on the feet, I used the table saw to create the cove and refined it with chisels. Below are some photos of the cove after it was cut on the table saw.

Using a piece off of another foot, I cut the profile for the foot. The piece I used is seen below

These next two photos show how the feet remnants were still attached to the case. The photo which follows shows all of the broken sections from the feet ready for gluing, including the two portions I made.

These two photos show the portions I made. Further refinement was made to each foot once the pieces were attached.

This photo shows the broken sections of the feet being reattached.

 

The next two photos show the new sections I made attached to the feet and refined.

  

 

The molding which serves as a transition from the lower to the upper chest was all loose. I removed it, removed the old glue, and reattached it. This can be seen in the next two photos

The cornice had several pieces of missing molding and also many loose pieces of dental molding and blind fretwork. I made the missing molding using an existing section and attached the new section. This can be seen in the three photos below. I also attached a board I made to replace the missing back board that completed the fourth side of the cornice.

This photo shows gluing the molding on the opposite side.

There were many feet of dental molding missing from the cornice. To make new molding I found that the thickness of my table saw blade was identical to the kerf in the molding. I used a backer board on a cross cut sled and cut into it to use the kerf as a guide. A piece of the old molding can be seen lying in front of the backer board in the photo below. The kerfs are lined up. The blue tape to the left is set to where the edge of the next kerf is in the molding. by advancing the kerf  I just cut to this blue tape line, I was lined up for the next kerf. The rest of the procedure was pretty mechanical.

This shows my new piece with the initial kerf lined up with the blue tape and ready to cut the next kerf. I should point out that in these photos I have the molding lying on it's side for clarity. The kerfs were cut with the molding standing on edge.

Checking my work!

Once the first side was cut, the molding was flipped and the second set of kerfs were cut between the first. Here is a finished piece of pierced dental molding.

This photo shows the new section along side the old. The new molding is below the old.

A stray photo, this shows a piece of missing beading that was replaced. The beading surrounds the blind fretwork.

Several gluing sessions were necessary to glue all of the loose molding, beading, and fretwork. The next few photos show some of this.

After the cornice was finished, new cockbeading was made for the drawers where it was missing. This photo is a sample of some of the new/loose beading being glued.

One of the drawers was missing a significant portion of the back board. I included this because the patch I made may possibly have been the largest patch I have made to date! The board is seen below, followed by a close up of the damage, and lastly, the gigantic patch.

All of the runners on the drawers were worn and broken. This photo shows the attachment of new wood to the runners on a few of the drawers.

This next photo, another stray, shows a missing runner on the brushing slide being attached.

After all of that, the next two photos show the upper and lower chest repaired and sanded.

Here they are again after they were stained.

One last piece of repair work that was done during the finishing process was to  make and attach new drawer stops for each chest.

These last few photos show the completed chest on chest. Quite a magnificent piece to grace my shop.