Antique 18th Century Mahogany Serpentine Boston Chest of Drawers. Four conforming graduated drawers with brass handles and locks, the solid ends half blind-dovetailed at back edge, the front edge chamfered and cockbead-molded in alignment with three drawer blades and base of mahogany and pine, the latter having conforming thumb-and fillet-molded edge, sharply pointed at the front corners to conform with the stout ogee legs on ball and claw feet. 

Condition: Minor loss to wood on back right top edge. Loose brass middle piece on top drawer and handle on right piece on bottom drawer. No key. Refinished. 

Size: 35 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 33 In. 

Thomas Chippendale was born in Yorkshire, England in 1718 to a family that had long been involved with woodworking, and he received basic training from his father, a joiner, although it is believed that he was also trained by Richard Wood in York before he relocated to London in 1754, setting up shop at 60-62 St Martin’s Lane. For the next 60 years the family business operated there until 1813 when his son, Thomas Chippendale Jr, was evicted for bankruptcy, and during 1754 he also began a partnership with James Rannie, a wealthy Scottish merchant who put money into the business, and published a book of his designs in a trade catalog titled “The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director,” gaining national renown. Their works involved designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. Prior to Chippendale, most styles of furniture were named after the currently reigning monarch, such as Louis XV or Queen Anne, but during the end of the reign of King George II the name Chippendale first took hold. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, “so influential were his designs, in Britain and throughout Europe and America, that ‘Chippendale’ became a shorthand description for any furniture similar to his Director designs.” In 1779 Chippendale relocated to Hoxton where he died of tuberculosis that same year.

Minor loss to wood on back right top edge. Loose brass middle piece on top drawer and handle on right piece on bottom drawer. No key. Refinished. 

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