Antique lowboys chest of drawers

A "lowboy" is a term to describe an 18th century item of period furniture originally used as a dressing table but now often used as a side table. The antique lowboy originally got its name as it is basically a low, small antique table. They were usually made in English oak with one or two drawers on the front and solid brass decorative handles. The earliest examples from the Queen Anne period would have been standing on elegant cabriole legs and made from Walnut or with spectacular figured oyster veneers. The Georgian period produced more simple country designs with turned more... legs.

Many of these designs were reproduced in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras in mahogany timber. These would come with Chippendale influences like blind fretwork carvings and more intricate decorative handles. They are still used for a variety of interior functions, and can style to a room.

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Until the mid-19th century, the standard chest had either four long, or three long and two short drawers. Rarely were there any exceptions to this rule. A chest with three drawers, or a series of small upper drawers, purporting to be Georgian, will probably have been converted from a chest-on-chest or tallboy. It is true that the 18th century commode often contain two long deep drawers, but this was a much grander and more decorative piece altogether, intended for drawing rooms, not bedrooms, and in any case was usually made to stand on legs. The standard chest more... of drawers continued to be made throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries (some Edwardian pine chests even had bracket feet), but variations were introduced during the mid-Victorian period, with some chests having seven or more drawers usually a deep hat drawer and smaller glove compartments. Chests with barley-sugar twist or split bobbin-turned supports date from the mid-19th century. less...