VALUATION HELP!!! ANTIQUE CHEST OF DRAWERS

Hi everyone thanks for taking time to view this post. my mother has asked me to sell this old chest of drawers its approx 5 feet tall. it was my grandmothers before she passed away lasr year. My mother wants to sell it because she needs to empty the house and asked me to deal with it. I dont know much about antiques and didnt want my mother getting ripped off so needed a rough valuation if anyone thinks they are up to the job. I live in the U.K

I took some photos
the top and right side have a crack and theres a few knocks from over the years. the size of the thing is absolutely massive.

chest of drawers by craig123uk posted Mar 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

chest of drawers by craig123uk posted Mar 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

chest of drawers by craig123uk posted Mar 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

chest of drawers by craig123uk posted Mar 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

chest of drawers by craig123uk posted Mar 29, 2017 at 7:52 PM

 

Just a guess,but it looks like Empire,possibly mahogany .Its a lovely piece,hopefully our English boardies can chime in on how the market is over there.

 

johnny thanks for your help

 

Probably about 1850. Has some elements of Empire but the carved embellishments are more renaissance revival. That would be the US take on this. Not sure what they would call it over there. Also no clue as to value there but out of fashion here so values repressed right now.

 

Not good at woods, but I don't think that is mahogany. Looks more like a fruit wood. Hopefully @verybrad will come back.

 

It's super, but the market is flat as heck for things like this. Absolutely not mahogany, maybe elm.

As a guide, I recently saw a lovely late 18th/early 19th C chest of drawers for under 150 quid. Yours is a little younger and a bit fancier, but I doubt it would make much more - maybe £200. It does to some degree depend where you are.

 

Looks like mahogany to me. The pics have an overall yellow quality to them so that may be why it doesn't look the deep red one would expect. Also, looks like it may have been refinished at some point.

 

I think it's too pale even if refinished. Elm was very common for chests of drawers here:

http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/200105/antique-george-iii-burr-elm-chest-of-drawers/

I think that may be burr elm.

 

Hi!! Just out of curiosity, what does "massive" translate into in numerical terms????

 

about 2 metres tall haha.

biggest chest of drawers ive seen.

but i know as much about antiques as i do speaking japanese

 

I'd take it to my local auction room but have no great expectations, estimate £50 - £80, although excellent quality and fine for the job of storing stuff, it is simply out of fashion.
The older people who would be happy with the look all have houses full of stuff already. I'd like to buy another house just to fill it with some of the great bargains (as I see them) in Georgian and Victorian furniture I can find in salerooms everywhere.

If there is any way for you to just keep it and use it, that's what I'd recommend. In 20 years someone may be paying a fortune for this period stuff as the fickle finger of fate decrees IKEA to be so last century,.

 

thank you afanantiques. the size is a factor in storing this. if it was a watch i could store it and wait. probably antiques dealers face the exact same problem. storage

 

Part of the problem in determining wood is that the pic is so small. Maybe this will help.

 

A closer look.....

 

KI would be surprised if it was anything but mahogany, most of the stuff used in the period had no significant figure.