Mahogany Chest with Flame Ogee Facia and Brass Handles

• Mahogany - Mahogany is a dense, close grained red-coloured timber from the West Indies and Central America. It was first imported into Europe in the the early 18th century and its use continued through the 19th century. It was popular for furniture making because of its strength, the wide boards available, the distinctive grain on some boards, termed flame mahogany and the rich warm colour of the timber when it was polished.. The "flame" was produced where a limb grew out from the trunk of the tree, and this timber was usually sliced into veneers for feature panels on doors, backs and cornices.
  
  Some terms used to describe mahogany relate to the country from which it originally came, such as "Cuban" mahogany, "Honduras" mahogany etc. However unless the wood has been tested the names assigned are more a selling feature, rather than a true indication of the timber's origin.
• Turning - Any part of a piece of furniture that has been turned and shaped with chisels on a lathe. Turned sections include legs, columns, feet, finials, pedestals, stretchers, spindles etc. There have been many varieties and fashions over the centuries: baluster, melon, barley-sugar, bobbin, cotton-reel, rope-twist, and so on. Split turning implies a turned section that has been cut in half lengthwise and applied to a cabinet front as a false decorative support.
• Drop Handles - In furniture of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, small metal drop handles were often used, frequently in a pear or tear shape. The back plate, to which the drop was attached, may be either a simple plain circle, or in the form of a star or diamond. These handles have been widely reproduced, and are frequently found on Jacobean and Queen Anne style furniture made after the first world war. Reproduction handles can usually be identified by the inferior quality of the metal used during the 1920s and 1930s, sometimes thinly coated with brass or copper, though modern copies are often of excellent quality.
• Ogee - A serpentine shape, usually convex at the upper part, concave at the lower. Mostly used to describe the front shapes of parts of carcass furniture, such as cornices, drawer fronts and feet.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• chests of drawers, material - mahogany 912
• chests of drawers, period - Victorian 1,216
• chests of drawers, style - four drawer 260