Adventures in Antiquity

The construction of 18th century furniture

Part of the reason that anyone buys or sells an antiques comes from a love for craft. It tells, moreover, something about the way people lived during that period. It tells us how they worked. It tells us something about their values. In general, antiques tell us about the culture which produced it: past and present. This is the first in an on-going series of articles about the construction and the markings of 18th century furniture.

As Melvin J. Wachowiak, Jr. notes 18th century furniture making is usually referred to as the “high-boy ” period. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the word high boy is a corruption of the french word for wood.

Some of the chests of this period have a leg base. Often a chest of drawers will stand high off the ground on these legs. “A morties-and-tenon frame with legs would lift it off the floor.” One of the most obvious things about 18th century furniture construction is the dove tail which one can see in this picture. Wherever wood meets on a chest or a commode, like this drawer, you’ll find these interlocking joints. In this example, the carpentry for the joints is rather rough.

Those are some of the marks of 18th century antique furniture that you can look for when considering the value of a particular piece.

condition: Excellent