A wonderful Queen Anne elm and oak lowboy with all of the
finer detailing seen on fashionable London pieces of the period but constructed
and turned in local timbers - a vernacular piece made by a very skilled and
experienced cabinet maker.
English furniture was, until the late 1600s, almost entirely
made from oak which was pegged and jointed without glue or screws.
Furniture was mostly functional, robust and versatile but
rarely elegant or experimental in form.
When William and Mary took the throne of England in 1690, they brought
with them the European understanding and love of inlays and decorative veneers and,
as with any Royal tastes, this immediately became highly fashionable and desirable. English cabinet makers adapted very quickly
to their customers revised demands for furniture that was elaborate and fine, lighter
in weight and appearance.
With Queen Anne’s brief accession to the throne there was a ten
year renaissance of British cabinet making with a focus on the elegant, the
refined and light – entirely different to the heavy and painted oak furniture
of the previous centuries.
This lowboy, with its fine leg turnings, wavy cross
stretcher and wide oversailing top was made by a craftsman who embraced the new
fashions and was able to make this wonderful lowboy. The materials were the same timbers used in
the decades prior but here the legs are turned from huge blocks of oak with
wide turned bulbs which show the original width designed emphasise the very
light, open and slender legs below (united by substantive but fine wavy
stretchers) in supporting the delicately fashioned drawer section and planked
oversailing top.
Original handles, one with small later fixings but in
original position.
All the timbers original, great patination and really
beautiful colour.
An evocative piece of early English furniture which has been
left to be - untroubled by time.