Oyster Veneered 17th Century Chest Of Drawers

Oyster Veneered 17th Century Chest Of Drawers.

An exceptional quality and rarely found, late 17th century, William and Mary period chest. With oyster cut laburnum veneers and geometric design inlaid decoration, with walnut crossbanding throughout. Having two short and three long drawers with replacement open plate brass handles, flanked by elegant walnut ends with invalid and banded decoration. Raised on attractive replacement turned bun feet.

Oyster veneering is a decorative form of veneering furniture which was initially developed during the 1660's by English cabinet makers. It involved using very thin slices of wood cut on a cross section, as opposed to straight down the line, of woods which were plentifully available during the 17th century. The most skilled cabinet makers would then take their oyster veneers and use them in all sorts of ways to create patterns on the furniture which they were creating.

Although Oyster veneered items can be found throughout the early 18th century, it generally fell out of fashion around 1710, and the large majority of oyster veneered items which you can be found were made between about 1680 and 1705. Oysters were taken from a few different woods including kingwood, yew, crocus, olive, walnut and laburnum.

This is a great example of a late 17th century oyster veneered chest, with great care and attention to detail paid to the decoration of the top and the drawer fronts. Some examples can be somewhat lacking in terms of the effort which has actually been put into the construction of the piece, relying heavily just on the decorative effects of the oyster cuts themselves, but this piece certainly isn't one of those.

Just as much effort has gone into creating a pattern on the ends as the rest of the piece which is relatively unusual and also the secondary timbers are of a very high quality, which means the chest remains in excellent condition. The brass handles and bun feet have been replaced at some point in its history, but this is very, very common on items of this age and its great that t hey have been replaced with examples which suit the piece and sit well on it. There are no aesthetically displeasing condition issues of any kind, remarkable really considering that the chest is at least 320 years old!

As with all items which we offer for sale this chest of drawers has been attended to by our highly skilled, traditional antique furniture restorers, ensuring that it is very much ready to be placed immediately into the home.

Circa 1690.

Height 37in.
Width 39in.
Depth 22.5in.

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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