How to Date an Antique Chest of Drawers

You date an antique chest of drawers by reading the construction and not only the style. Hand-cut dovetails, uneven saw marks, forged nails and hand-made screws show older work, while machine-cut dovetails, even circular-saw marks and identical screws show a date after the mid-nineteenth century.

Facts

Start with the style

Look first at the whole. A Rococo chest has a bulging front and curved legs, a Karl Johan chest is straight and dark with columns, and Gustavian furniture, such as the Gustavian chair, has straight, slender legs and pale colours. The style shows which period the piece imitates, but it does not prove when it was made: many chests were produced long after the style was fashionable. Read more in furniture styles in chronological order, in the guides to Rococo furniture and Biedermeier and in furniture terms.

So one moves on to the construction. Pull out a drawer and look at how it is built. It is the drawer, not the front, that is hardest to fake, because it is seldom polished or altered.

Dovetails and saw marks

The corners of the drawer are usually joined with dovetails. Hand-cut dovetails are slightly uneven, with visible scribe marks, and are often widely spaced with few broad tails. Machine-cut dovetails are exactly alike and closely spaced; they became common from about the 1860s onwards. If they are machine-cut the chest cannot be older than that, however old the front looks.

Saw marks are the next clue. Older boards were sawn by hand and have straight, slightly slanting tracks. The circular saw leaves curved marks and became common during the nineteenth century. The drawer bottom also gives information: in older chests it is often solid wood with bevelled edges, in newer ones thin plywood or board. Veneer was once hand-sawn and thick, often several millimetres, whereas machine-cut veneer from the nineteenth century is thin, about a millimetre.

Screws, nails and mounts

Look at the screws. Hand-made screws have irregular threads and a crooked, hand-filed slot in the head. Machine-made screws with a pointed tip became common from the middle of the nineteenth century, and screws with exactly identical threads indicate late manufacture. Hand-forged nails are angular and uneven, whereas wire nails, round and identical, came into use at the end of the nineteenth century.

The mounts are easy to replace, so they prove less. Older chests often have forged or cast drawer handles and brass escutcheons, but the mounts may have been replaced. Look therefore for traces of older holes or paler patches beneath them. If you find several sets of holes the mounts have been changed, which is a sign that the piece has lived a long time.

Wear, patina and warnings

Honest wear looks natural: worn drawer edges, mouldings rubbed by hands and a surface darker where the sun has not reached. Artificial wear is evenly spread and too heavy. Also feel the back of the chest, where the wood is often untreated and shows its real age.

Be careful with married pieces. A chest may have an older top and a younger base, or a replaced top surface. Measure, compare the width of the drawers and see whether the woods agree. If you are unsure, ask an antiques dealer or an auction house, and study furniture in museums to learn to see the differences.

How to recognise it

Exercise

What do exactly identical, machine-cut dovetails in a drawer tell you?