What Can You Tell Me About This Washstand.

[frogpatch]

My wife spotted this and we brought it for 15.00. It was marked 1940s chest. The pulls are not original.I don't think it ever had pulls as It has a hand hole under the drawer to open it. The knobs are not original. The top is one single wide board and the door panels are chamfered into the frames as is the drawer bottom. They have a crotch mahogany veneer that is bookmatched. At first I thought it was a midcentury modern piece by the curved drawer without pulls. However one close look and it is way older. The bracket feet are broken and there is a weird finish covering it that makes it lighter than the wood beneath. That spot on the top is where the finish is missing.They even put it on back and sides but not the front. Note the square nails. This piece just makes no sense to me. I think it is a washstand because it is looks like one.

[frogpatch]

More Pics

[bigwull]

great find for $15....would say its made of primarily,mahogany...the top has a burr on it which i like, the shelves are made of pine,...date wise, i,d say 1920,s...you won,t go wrong with this......and it would burn well.....

[Ipcress]

The top looks 19th to me, and the whole has been varnished / aged so it matches up.

Curious thing.

[Rauville]

Nice little country washstand for that kind of money. Probably had a backsplash and towel bar(s) of some sort at one time. Looks like grain painting on the backside?

Here's a somewhat vaguely similar styled one that was at a show in Vermont. Priced at $295, and noted at being circa 1850.

[mart]

Does it show where the backsplash and towel racks would have attached   You didn`t show the dovetails,,, Would you please Frogpatch ??

[frogpatch]

Mart, there are no dovetails. You can see that the drawer front is wider than the sides. The fact that there is a underside grip on the drawer has convinced me that there were no handles. There are two in the back which must have supported something but they are only near the top and very small.. The curious thing to me is the fact that the drawer was opened from below without hardware.
Rauville I see a similarity but the underside handgrip is what really confused me. It is not painted grain. I looked at it through a loop and the grain is continuous where the finish has been lost.
I would like to remove the pulls, fill the holes, and make it plain but my wife likes it the way it is.

[mart]

Then how are the drawer sides attached !! Would still like to see the construction of those drawers !! Would like to see one of those nails out !! This stand must have been stripped at some point,, I don`t see the age I would expect around those nails and oddly,, they look like horse shoe nails !! Bigger heads than I would expect on something this size !!  But that may just be the pic !!

[cogar]

Yup, washstands usually had a back-splash or a towel-bar bow.

The top board looks like black walnut.

The square nails look ok to me

What you might have there is the base for a 2-part bow-front hutch or cupboard.

And it was a silly person who put the pulls on the drawer ....... but if I were you I would leave them there unless you are really good at using those "wax" pencils.

[bigwull]

it never ceases to amaze me...the choice of words used in the US...to describe items of furniture....over here, a "hutch"..is for keeping rabbits in....see loink to palatial...bunny houses.....

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rabbit+hutch&newwindow=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5VfuUYTQC-mN7Abz8oCwBw&ved=0CG8QsAQ&biw=1198&bih=665

[frogpatch]

Mart. There are pictures of the front and rear drawer joining. The rear is nailed and the sides fit in a groove on the front which is wider that the interior of the drawer.

We have rabbit hutches over here too Bigwull.

I think it i missing a splash board because their are two holes. A towel rack would have required four.

[cogar]

....over here, a "hutch"..is for keeping rabbits in....

Well duh, over here it is the same "hutch" ......... but for keeping "dust bunnies" and other things in.

The building of those "hutches" became far more elaborate many years after the Pilgrims were first dumped off on the New England coast.

T'weren't no need to change the name just cause they "growed up", ..... now t'was there?

[cogar]

I think it i missing a splash board because their are two holes. A towel rack would have required four.

The top section of a hutch only requires two holes.

[cogar]

ps, ....... "Its a washstand", ......... if that's what you want it to be.

[frogpatch]

I don't need a wash stand. We have had running water here for a while now. It is too short for a hutch bottom. Only 29 inches. We are using it as a place to put stuff that has no other place to be put. So I will call it a stuff keeper.