40 
House 
& Garden 
ON THE TRAIL OF THE HIGHBOY 
From the Old Oaken Chest Up to the Fine JJ^orks of Chippendale Is An 
Interesting Path of Furniture Evolution 
WAITER A. DYER 
The fashion of japa-nning 
was at its height about 
1720. An example is found 
in the Queen Anne or early 
Georgian highboy, dating 
from 1710-172S, at the 
right. It is of maple. This 
and other illustrations are 
from the Metropolitan! 
Museum of Art 
The Chest of Drawers 
Among others, the William 
and Mary style was brought 
to America from England 
and influenced local cabi¬ 
net work. To the left is 
an .American-made chest 
of drawers in the William 
and Mary style, dating 
1700-1710. It is of wal¬ 
nut, with typical legs and 
drops 
T he trail of tlie highboy is a path 
of natural, logical evolution. You 
pick it up with the old oaken chest— 
the chest with a lid, to keep things in 
I'hen some genius discovered the fact 
that if the lid were nailed down and 
drawers were let into the side of the 
chest, linen and other things, placed on 
top, did not have to be removed every 
time it was necessary to open the chest. 
Thus came the chest with drawers. 
By the same simple, utilitarian logic 
the chest of drawers was developed from 
the chest with drawers. It was merely 
a matter of convenience. It was dis¬ 
covered that if the chest were raised a 
bit from the floor, one did not need to 
stoop so far to get at the bottom drawer. 
It was also discovered that the capacity 
of the chest was limited only by the 
number of drawers, and that three 
would hold more tlian two. So they 
made the thing taller and added more 
drawers. Gradually it began to look 
less like the old lidded chest. 
'I'hus, in the 17th Century was 
evolved the chest of drawers. The first 
ones, indeed, appeared as 
early as 1600, though the 
old-style chest with draw¬ 
ers continued in use for 
the better part of a cen¬ 
tury. 
The chest of drawers 
was a very' simple affair 
The high chest of draw¬ 
ers, shown above, is of 
the William and Mary 
period, 1690-1700. It is 
of oak and the front 
has paneling which is 
reminiscent of the Ja¬ 
cobean 
Judging the Age 
at first—merely a cabinet of two, three, 
or four drawers raised a little from 
the ground on four straight, short legs. 
But even these slight changes made a 
much less cumbersome and more dis¬ 
tinguished piece of furniture of it. For 
the most part these early chests were 
plain, though some were paneled and 
ornamented with Tudor carving and 
molding. • 
As the 17th Century advanced, the 
chest of drawers became more common 
and more important. \Ve begin to note 
expressions of the Jacobean style in the 
lines and ornamentation. There be¬ 
came apparent an effort to treat this 
piece with some respect, and even 
though it ranked below the magnificent 
dining-room cupboards of the period, 
it was made rather more ornamental 
than formerly. About the middle of 
the centur)’ turned wooden handles were 
used on the drawers, or simple iron 
drops or pulls. About 1665 brass drops 
and escutcheons or key-plates came 
into vogue. 
means of such details that 
the age of a piece may be 
determined wdth a fair de¬ 
gree of accuracy, though 
drawer handles are never 
to be taken as final evi¬ 
dence, since they are so 
easily transferable. Legs 
are a safer guide, and on 
It is by 
The lowboy is not 
merely . the table part 
of the highboy. It 
measures 34" high and 
the highboy table 38". 
This is a Queen Anne 
or early Georgian low¬ 
boy 
