Chests

Chests were first used in the Middle Ages both in the home and as luggage for wealthy nobles. Considered by many to be the “grandfather of furniture,” the chest ultimately helped spawn a flurry of furniture design.

The earliest chests were boarded or planked, crudely fashioned from six wood planks held together with nails. These early iterations often warped due to shrinkage and so developed into externally framed chests, which were less likely to warp and often adorned with carved friezes and eye-pleasing locking mechanism. Some of these early chests, including bible boxes, dowry chests, painted wedding chests, and blanket chests, became culturally significant folk art traditions and coveted antiques.

Chest-on-chests, also known as highboys, provided grand style to buyers with more extravagant tastes. Chests of drawers, or dressers, are now the most common form of storage furniture.

Quick Facts

• In a 2011 Skinner auction, a rare Federal flame birch and mahogany veneer reverse serpentine chest of drawers sold for $314,000
• A very important circa 1800 Johannes Spitler painted yellow pine blanket chest sold at a Jeffrey S. Evans auction for $356,500
• In 2006, a chest of drawers by Robert Crosman, made in 1729, sold at a Christie's auction for $2.6 million