This small chest of drawers has a classic shape that can be found under the Regency. It still retains the rigor of Louis XIV: the façade is curved in plan, the front uprights are rounded and the sides remain straight.
It opens at the front with three drawers. Its uprights and intermediate rails are decorated with brass fluting.
The frame is entirely made of fir. The intermediate panels are dovetailed into the sides. The back is made of horizontal planks, nailed in a rabbet joint.
The drawers are made of walnut, except for their white wood fronts. Their bottoms are flat and nailed.
Rio rosewood veneer, often used alone during the Regency period, forms flat-banded panels on the drawer fronts. Their edges are softened with a quarter-round veneer of cross-grain wood. The sides are veneered in a herringbone pattern on a single axis.
A minor maintenance restoration
Nothing too serious with this chest of drawers: no missing veneer, just some hot-glue repairs. These mainly affected the uprights, at the joints, and the drawers, at the dovetail joints. We filled and adjusted the solid wood sections before re-veneering.
We then removed the yellowed varnish film with a suitable, non-aggressive stripper. It only removes a thin layer of varnish and preserves the underlying surface. This allowed us to revarnish without filling with pumice, retaining a trace of the old finish, especially around the bronze parts.
We then varnished the chest of drawers with a colorless pad.
To see previous restorations : https://ebenisterie-mathieuvath.fr/en-ce-moment-a-latelier/
