This small chest of drawers has a classic form typical of the Regency period. Still retaining the strictures of Louis XIV, the front is curved, the front uprights are rounded, and the sides remain straight.
It opens at the front with 3 drawers. Its uprights and intermediate crossbars are made of brass fluting.
In terms of construction, the chest of drawers is entirely made of fir; the intermediate panels are dovetailed into the sides, and the back is composed of horizontal planks held in place by nails in a rabbet joint.,
The drawers are made of walnut, except for the fronts which are made of white wood. The drawer bottoms are flat and nailed in place.
Rio rosewood veneer, commonly used alone during the Regency period, is divided into panels with flat bands on the drawer fronts, the edges of which are softened with a quarter round veneered across the grain, the sides of the chest of drawers are veneered in a single-axis chevron pattern.
A minor maintenance restoration
Nothing too serious for this chest of drawers. No missing veneer, just some repairs using hot glue, mainly on the uprights (at the joints) and on the drawers (at the dovetails). The solid wood sections were reinforced and adjusted before the re-veneering.
The yellowed varnish film was then removed with a suitable stripper. This means a non-aggressive stripper that removes a thin layer of varnish, but not all of it, in order to preserve the underlying varnish so that it can be revarnished without filling the gaps with pumice and thus retaining a trace of the old finish (particularly on the bronze parts).
The chest of drawers was then French polished with a colorless varnish.
To see previous restorations : https://ebenisterie-mathieuvath.fr/en-ce-moment-a-latelier/
