Blanket Chest

[mart]

Jacon4, did you notice the frame construction ?? 

[RugRat5288]

As far as i can tell this thing has never had any paint on it.  not a trace of paint anywhere. So any guess when it might have been made?

[ghopper1924]

Eastern U.S.

I agree that it's a later iteration of an 18th century form. Jacon is right, style and technique tends to morph from cities to the countryside, where later iterations may be found decades, even centuries, later. So I'll stick with mid-late 19th century.

A wonderful piece. Congratulations!!

[mart]

Dovetailed on front is unusual, if thats what it is !! Looks like it in pic !!

[jacon4]

Yes, the case is dovetailed, a common form of construction in the 18th century. This chest is made with yellow pine which indicates southern or mid atlantic region of origin. The thickness of the pine case also suggests 18th century. It's entirely possible that this is in fact an 18th century Queen Anne chest, the skirt looks like Sheraton but might just be a country version of QA, so i am going to revise my time line again, lol. Last quarter 18th century to 1st quarter 19th century. The quality of pics are not very good, difficult to get a sense of the entire piece.
In any event, absolutely worthy of a bit of restoration by a professional who could bring the piece back to its former self.

[mart]

I would certainly have it restored !! But don`t do anything except repair it to make it usable and by someone that knows what they are doing !! I love the finish as it is !!

[jacon4]

I would add that if it's southern and if it's 18th century ( thats 2 if's so far) that would increase it's value because southern EA furniture generally speaking, sells for far more than new england furniture does because there is less of it due to war & climate.

[jacon4]

Cogar, yeah, theres good and bad news on early painted furniture. The good news is, modern strippers usually cant penetrate or remove it, the bad news is, during the 1970s country fad, many pieces of painted furniture were stripped with a belt sander, OUCH!

What you did is commonly referred to as dry scraping, very tedious but it works pretty well to remove modern layers of paint.

[bigwull]

Over here in UK,in the 80,s/90,s..a whole host of small business,s sprung up,promoting....Dipping painted Pine Kists,Doors,Fire Surrounds,etc,..in a tank of diluted Caustic Soda,...which did the job,...but as it is a corrosiveliquid, it took all the resin out of the wood,and the glues that sometime held these pieces together,and the Yellow Pine ceased to be yellow when it came out....it was more of a dirty grey......as i said in a previous post, i,ve just stripped a Pine Kist,...using a non acidic stripper,..and its still yellow,

[cogar]

jatcon4, I used a belt sander back when I was stripping furniture.

But not on the wood.

I discovered that a “cutter bar” knife blade (see pic below) makes the bestest ever paint or finish “scraping” tool that one can get their hands on. I have 3 or 4 of them which I scavaged from “junk boxes” at farm auctions. You can buy “new” ones but they will have a “serrated” edge which will have to be “sanded” smooth.

 They are made of high tensile/tempered steel and I used the belt sander to keep them razor sharp and/or to contour the “point” for inside-corners and moldings.

And you always “scrape” backward  …. with the beveled edge of the blade always pointing away from the wood surface.

[jacon4]

http://www.eldreds.com/auctions/detail/item/169495/sale/765/dept/3