ANTIQUES: Top Drawer

Graceful lines and elegant details are hallmarks of Queen Anne-style furniture, as are the distinctive, curved cabriole legs of its tables, desks, chairs, and dressers. Though Queen Anne reigned in Great Britain for a mere dozen years (1702 to 1714), the furnishings became popular here in the Colonies in the mid-eighteenth century, after her death, and have endured ever since. 

This cherry and pine Queen Anne highboy ($14,000) was probably built in the Hartford/Windsor area of Connecticut, between 1740 and 1760. The five-and-a-half-foot-tall highboy was made in two sections, one stacked atop the other and held in place by a rim of molding. The upper portion boasts four wide drawers; the lower segment features an unusual side-by-side arrangement of three. All seven drawers showcase dovetail joinery and period-brass pulls; the upper drawers also include brass keyhole escutcheons.

The cabriole legs on this piece end in the classic pad feet so often seen in Queen Anne furniture, and the lower section of the chest is decorated with two acorn finials suspended beneath a decorative apron. The top is finished simply, with a deep cornice molding.

[Jan/Feb 2010]

THE GOODS

Samuel Herrup Fine Antiques

116 Main St.

Sheffield, Mass.

413.229.0424

www.samuelherrup.com