Does anyone know the possible age of this furniture?

gabyjane

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Hi,
Picked up a unit at the weekend and cannot find anything online regarding its age.. How do I upload a photo please?!

Jackmydad

Looks like 20s / 30s to me.
Oak by the look of it, been stained at some time.
Have you got a shot of the outside side of the drawers?
Underneath too if poss.
And the back of the piece?

gabyjane

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Jackmydad

Ply drawer bottoms, so most likely about when I said IMHO.
I wanted to see the joint where the sides of the drawers join onto the front really. Gives some idea of quality.
The door frames might be ash. Difficult to tell from photos though.
Decent enough piece I'd have said. Probably a lot better than the vast majority of modern stuff.

gabyjane

Thanks for your reply. I picked it up at a recycling centre for £13..although I want to keep any ideas on value? Would it be an original? For some reason it keeps posting the same image, let me do the dovetail pic.

gabyjane

Have no idea why it now won't post ��

gabyjane

Last try! If it doesnt work the dovetails are uneven and don't look machine done

https://i.postimg.cc/m2B1bWGM/IMG-20190625-100305.jpg

Jackmydad

Has to be a bargain at that, although "brown furniture" isn't in fashion at present AFAIK.
Don't really know about price though. I know more about construction methods and when they are likely to have been used.
If the dovetails are all "equal" as I suspect, then it will have been "machine made". Nothing wrong with that, it's just that it was mass market rather than bespoke. Still looks decent quality.
It'd most likely have been French polished originally, although that's been stripped.
Don't be tempted to take it to a stripper. It'll denature the wood, and remove the glue.

Jackmydad

Dovetails really don't look equal, as in "machine cut" although it's difficult to tell.
OTOH, they're not traditional hand cut dovetails with fine pins.
Sawn drawer sides make me wonder too.
Possibly a piece made by a keen amateur. I believe you could buy those pressed panels in the doors at that sort of time.
Certainly we have a trestle table made by my wife's great uncle who was an amateur woodworker around that time, and that's an excellent piece of oak furniture.

Working_Mum

I have something similar - we call it the linen press (not sure why!!). I now use it as my drinks cabinet!

Are you going to spruce it up or re-vamp completely??

EssexExile

gabyjane wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I picked it up at a recycling centre for £13..although I want to keep any ideas on value? Would it be an original? For some reason it keeps posting the same image, let me do the dovetail pic.

Brown furniture is very cheap at the moment, I doubt you'd get enough for a good meal from it.