Antique chest on chest

A double-height item of furniture consisting of a chest of drawers placed on top of another chest. The lower section usually contains three drawers, the upper section having three or four long and maybe three shorter drawers across the top. The upper section sometimes has canted corners and a fairly substantial cornice. The drawers on most chests made until at least the mid-19th century were generally graduated that is, the upper drawers were quite shallow, the lower drawers becoming proportionately much deeper. Also known as a tallboy in England and Australia.

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...