Cedar chest of drawers

Horsecroft88 · #1 9th Nov 2011, 03:13 PM

Hi all, I just thought I would post a couple of pics of my latest acquisition. It is 6 drawer full cedar chest of drawers, with cedar fiddleback on the front, crossbanded top edge and very nice flame on the sides and top. It is a huge piece, apparently dates back to the 1830s-1840s. Supposedly it came originally from a farm somewhere down the Huon Valley here in Tassie.

The photos shown were taken while it was in storage at the dealer's shop from who I bought it from. It was from his own personal collection. The price though not cheap $2.5K, in my mind was fair, given its size, condition, and that it is full cedar. I have rarely seen fiddleback cedar before in such a piece.

Now it does have a few minor faults which will need to be dealt with, the worst being that there is damage to the front face of one of the drawers, which will need to be repaired. I suspect that this might be a little beyond my skill level. Also I need to find correct handles for it as they have been replaced at some time in the past with brass ones, but totally wrong period for this piece.

As far as the polish is concerned, all I intend doing is perhaps cut it back with some ubeaut product (cleaning agent), and then fine steelwool and wax polish. I may need to touch up on the feet and bottom plinth edge with shellac but will be careful in this.

Anyway, if anyone has some suggestions as to perhaps how best to repair the damage i would be interested otherwise I might need to get a professional repairer to sort the damage, and or if anyone has or knows of where I can find the right handles for it that would be appreciated.

Toymaker Len · #2 10th Nov 2011, 09:56 AM

That is a remarkable piece of cedar and the very essence of the australian chest of cedar drawers, no embellishment, pure functional design and lets the cedar shine. It will look fantastic with a bit of polish.

Horsecroft88 · #3 10th Nov 2011, 11:15 AM

Thanks Len, yes that was precisely my feeling as soon as I saw it. I had been on the hunt for such a piece for a very long time. I previously restored and on-sold 3 other smaller chests (mahogany and a Kauri Pine one), plus a farmhouse kitchen table to help finance this purchase. It looks huge in my current bedroom but in our country place, along with some of my other early cedar furniture it will look completely at home. The bedroom at this place is much larger.

I have already waxed it and it looks even better now. A little bit more of careful TLC will make this chest truely shine.

I will include a few pics of the country place where we will be living in the future, when ready to do so. It will provide the context. A couple of the bedroom, with all the cedar joinery, sandstone mantlepiece, (restored fireplace), bathroom with restored woodwork, original wide blackwood/oak floors, and rare handmade regency oak and cedar (inset mantlepiece) and finally the kitchen which we are currently restoring/building inc. baltic pine lining (which I have hand stripped over the fireplace), Huon splashbacks, handpainted Tunisian tiles etc etc. Again the room has its original floor in place (apart from a couple of minor sections). We have sourced a lot of second hand timbers/doors/correct period 6 panel windows etc to be built into this build.

Chief012 · #4 10th Nov 2011, 09:52 PM

Wow, what a beautiful chest! That grain is stunning, I can only imagine what it would look like face to face.

In terms of the damage, my opinion would be to have it done professionally, anything other than a proper repair could detract from the piece and ruin it and its value. I am a big fan of "Howards Products" for the cleaning, sounds like you have that covered!

I think those handles are still Victorian,..might not be original however thankfully not some brown plastic ones! If you are looking to sell them, PM me as I would be interested.

Great work on your place as well, that chest will be prefect,..Its on my list to create a similar place as well

Horsecroft88 · #5 11th Nov 2011, 10:52 AM

Heh heh, thanks for the compliments, and yes the grain up and close and personal is really stunning. I have rarely seen anything quite like it. Hence when I first saw it, after the dealer (a friend of mine, from whom we have bought quite a number of pieces) told me about it and that he could be interested in selling it, I just new I had to buy it. You just don't find chest of drawers quite like this very often.

Yes that too is my thinking, I can repair some things, and stripping/re french polishing furniture etc is a doddle for me, but intricate repairs, and/or the risk of stuffing it up on something like this, no best not. And besides I really also have too many other projects to be working on.

I will attach a fewmore photos, of it at home (2 showing the damage, crap photos though as out of focus) and a close up of the handles. The other photos are of a couple of other items we have bought from the dealer (the red chair and double end cedar couch which my partner restored-recovered, she being good at this sort of thing). Plus two more projects for me, a tilt table - think it is mahogany which has a repair needed to the leg and some repolishing and a solid mahogany table which has a split in the top (not sure if I can repair that) the top needs re-polishing, regrettably though the feet of the legs have been chopped off, again I suspect that too could be repaired but it is probably beyond my skills.

I am lucky as the current home (where I have lived for the past 20 years), is also full of old timbers (given it dates back to 1850) and so the antiques we have are totally right for the environment. The country place though is something again different from what we have, being significantly earlier.

Not a problem, once I can locate the right handles I would be more than happy to let the ones on the chest go, and can PM you.

Chief012 · #6 11th Nov 2011, 10:04 PM

No problem. I don't suppose your friends shop is the antique warehouse in Warick st? The ceiling in one of your photos looks similar to one I found while on holidays in your part of the work last year. Your friend has provided you with some great projects!! Great job on the couch btw.

Are you sure the handles are not original, I cant see any other marks on the close up photo,..not questioning just curious

Horsecroft88 · #7 14th Nov 2011, 02:45 PM

Hi mate, yes indeed it is !! Quite amazing for I am not sure i would have picked the shop from the photo. I checked the drawers and each one has a hole drilled through where one would expect there to be a normal knob, hence while I agree the drawer front doesn't show anything, I still suspect the brass handles are probably not the orginal ones. They are ok, until I can find what I would like.

Chief012 · #8 14th Nov 2011, 05:54 PM

Ha thats funny,...I remember the ceiling in that shop well - I am an old building fan and it stood out

Oh and there was some nice stuff in there as well!

auscab · #9 14th Nov 2011, 11:50 PM

Nice chest you have there, It would be interesting to see if the feet are Cedar or Blackwood, Blackwood feet would mean it probably had Blackwood knobs, I have seen it that way on original chests,Tassie and Vic ones a few times.
It would be nice to have a set of knobs turned for it, bought ones dont allways have the right shape , early to mid Victorian knobs had a finer cut about them, not all the time though.

Have you got any more pictures of the Back of the chest showing nail heads ,close, and the inside face of the drawer showing the lock ,and knob holes ,also undeneath the drawer bottom showing nail heads,or saw marks showing the way it was cut. and a close up of the foot ?

Horsecroft88 · #10 15th Nov 2011, 11:05 AM

Heh heh given all the antique shops in Tassie, I still think you have an excellent memory of the ceiling, but yes I can well understand what you are saying about it. It certainly is a great old building (I too am an old building person), and Scott sure has some really nice antiques there. Mind you we have liberated a number of things from him, I also have a full (tall cedar) linen press/cupboard I previously bought from him.

Re the feet, I would be pretty certain they are cedar, not blackwood. But yes, blackwood knobs would look good against the cedar of the drawers and typical of such colonial chests. I have thought, like you, that if I can't find a complete set of original knobs then having them turned up might be a good option, for I know exactly what you mean by the quality of the repros available. The shape is never quite right from what I have seen.

I havn't any photos of the details that you ask about Auscab, but can do so and then post. As I said in my first post re this, there are a number of minor repairs to be done, as there are a couple of backing boards missing (well a section of them), but that is ok, as I have sufficient spare cedar panelling to repair this and can do this myself. I also have somewhere a bag of old handmade nails and if I can find them will use them to repair the missing timber.

The damage to the front of the drawer though is beyond me, though luckily I have enough cedar to be able to have this done.

Chief012 · #11 15th Nov 2011, 09:26 PM

What can I say - my brain seems to remember obscure trivial things like ceilings however ask me the name of a person I met 3 minutes before hand I would have no idea! He did have some nice things, was a nice bloke too and happy for a chat which is always nice. I could have liberated a few things off him too,..well that was a common theme for most places I went into when there!

Horsecroft88 · #12 30th Nov 2011, 02:49 PM

Sorry guys I have been as ever busy with work and the house restoration process, so alas I have no more photos of the chest. However, I do have some more photos of two other items I have/am working on.

The first is a colonial cedar ladies bidet that my other half bought at the local auctions. It was dull and grey but otherwise in excellent condition. The bowl of course is missing. Mind you she didn't pay much for it, and I have seen recently two other examples (one in an Antique shop, the other on ebay) and the prices being asked were considerably more than she paid for it. So all I had to do, was some light sanding back using 220 and 400 grade and multiple layers of shellac applied. In the end, a light steel wooling back (0000 grade and bees wax polish) and it was completed. I am pretty happy with the final result.

The next piece is a pine and mahogany corner cupboard, also bought at auction. It needs quite a lot more work, as the polish is pretty dead, it is missing some trims and handles etc. I will clean it up inside and re-french polish the outer. But I am unsure re what the top might have had by way of a plinth, what to do with the missing small trim at the base and also what sort of handles to use. Happy for any suggestions re this one.

pmcgee · #13 4th Dec 2011, 05:34 PM

This may be my own perverse-ness (I was going to say "perversion", but I won't) but I rather like the existing mechanical repair to the tilt-table. It has its own dignity from what I could see in the photo. Is it out of whack or loose? Or you'd just prefer it properly re-joineried?

Paul McGee
(Yes - I invent words for a living)

old pete · #14 4th Dec 2011, 07:32 PM

Hi Horsecroft88,

You will probably find appropriate handles at Fragments 52 Bathurst St Hobart. Nice piece of furniture. Is that image taken in Coogans warehouse. Looks familiar to me. P mail me if you are stuck for a spare piece of cedar for the repair.

Cheers Old Pete

Horsecroft88 · #15 9th Dec 2011, 12:27 PM

Hi Paul, for sure I understand what you say re the repair to the leg, and in truth I probably would be accepting of it, if it were structurally sound. But regrettably it is not and so perhaps this is the opportunity to repair it properly and then re-polish the table to bring it back to its full glory. It really is quite a lovely table. Again the price was not expensive, so worth repairing for sure.

Pete, yes indeed well spotted, for you are correct, it is above the Coogans warehouse. Actually in the upstairs section of the Hobart Antiques Warehouse. The chest was Scott's own personal piece, which he decided to let it go, knowing I would appreciate it.

Re the offer of cedar to repair the damage to the drawer front, that is very kind of you. I do have some spare cedar, but I need to check the colour and grain to see if it is suitable, if not I might need to take you up on your offer. I can PM you if this is needed.

Re the handles I have looked at what is available at Fragments and while they have two styles, to my eye they are not quite right for this piece, given its age. So, I will keep looking in the first instance, and/or if I can't find what I want, then perhaps i will either buy some from them or alternatively see if I can get someone to make some for me. Chris St Hill might be able to, or alternatively another furniture restorer I know.