Thread: Bedside table? Small cabinet?

Looks to be Edwardian style. The columns with plinth and capital were a strong feature of the period. Early to mid 1900's

There was a fair amount of this furniture available around the 1990s. We have a couple of chests of drawers in that style. I think they either came from Indonesia or Malaysia and the style was usually called Empire. Mostly they were made form fairly green wood and the panels in the frames shrunk a lot causing retailers at the time some angst.

I think your closer to the period Fuzzie than I am and the time frame.

It is interesting furniture to inspect if you have the chance. They are clearly hand made using a minimal tool set. The dovetailed drawers are all rather roughly done and the internal frames/runners sometimes just bits of odd timber screwed in place but it is all still holding together. All in all it shows how good handmade furniture can look without being overly fastidious with tolerances and using engineering precision on your dovetails.

I once thought of making something in a similar style but I couldn't find a supplier for the column foot and capital. The same drawer pulls were however readily available.

The biggest problem I have with our chests is that the drawer fronts shrunk across their depth but the cockbeading didn't. A classic long grain / short grain struggle. The side beads have pushed against the top and bottom beads and flexed them away from the panel. I've removed a couple and shortened them on one extremely affected drawer but the glue is fairly tenacious and I'm a bit scared I'd do too much damage trying to remove and refix the rest of them.