Rare and Beautiful George I Yew Wood Chest of Drawers c. 1720

An exceptionally rare solid yew wood chest of usable and most attractive proportions, having a a beautiful colour with rich natural patination and with barber pole inlays in ebony and holly to the top and to each of the drawer fronts.

Yew trees are evergreen and were often planted next to Christian churches to represent eternal life and resurrection. Pagans also planted yew trees in their most sacred places and early Christian churches were frequently built on these sites and the Pagan yew trees retained.

Yews are extremely slow growing and have unusual healing capacity which enables the trees to recover from storm and lightning damage. There are yew trees in the UK known to be more than 3,000 years old and in Europe some are believed to be as old as 9,000 years.

The remarkable grain and beautiful colours of yew, its density, durability and weight made it a treasured timber for the early joiners and cabinet makers but yew wood was very hard to obtain because yew trees were rarely cut down. Small branches were used - steamed and bent to make hoops and rails for the best quality Windsor chairs or sliced into veneers to add beautiful crossbandings and panels to oak and mahogany furniture.

In this chest the yew wood has been used in the solid and the wide boards to the top and side panels were cut from a very old and large tree which must have fallen or been felled. The cabinet maker has emphasised the solid timber by inlaying the barber pole stringing and the contrasts would have been far more marked when the chest was first made.

With two short over three long drawers, the drawers all run smoothly.

The steel locks are original, the small batwing handles are later replacements that have been on the chest for most of its life and are solid brass with wear and fine engraving. All the timbers including drawer linings and back boards are original.

The drawers have been lined in the 19th century with paper, still in fair order and a small piece of a newspaper visible beneath this bears the date August 31st, 1850. It was usual to line drawers with paper to keep dust out and is usual.

This is a fine quality and beautiful piece of early English furniture in very good condition with only small dings, marks and knocks consistent with age and careful use. There are some slight shrinkage cracks to the top boards which would have occurred in the first few decades after the chest was made - as the wood continued to dry out – but nothing untoward or ‘going anywhere’ and not noticeable.

A stunning and very well proportioned English Yew chest made in c. 1720. Such a treat! As rare as hens teeth and the colour is exceptional!