Rare Victorian Est. 2008 · The Curator's Archive
My Finds No. 416

Birdseye Maple Dresser Identification

Originally published

BirdseyeVictorian FurnitureMapleNew York

Birdseye Maple Dresser Identification
Birdseye Maple Dresser Identification

Here's a little "in-the-field" reporting as I spend some time away from home this weekend on the Chesapeake Bay visiting some friends and shopping with my wife. Fortunately for me, there is a selection of girlie shops with three antique shops nearby. I can bait my wife into town with the former and end up in the latter.

I've been drooling over this dresser for at least two years as it sits there in a clothing and shabby chic furniture shop with little attention paid to it's masterful execution. No one has bought it all this time and I've hesitated on buying it myself on two counts: 1) it's a dresser, all by it's lonesome (who buys a dresser with no mates), and 2) the price is higher than I want to pay.

It's a massive Birdseye Maple dresser with incredibly precise carving, original brown marble and inlay that rivals the best of the New York greats. I even took out the Herter book out once to see if the inlay patterns were present in the appendix reference section, but it was not.

I've attached some horrible camera phone images below for your perusal, and if anyone has any opinions on it's origin, I'd love to hear it.

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Birdseye Maple Dresser Identification
Birdseye Maple Dresser Identification

11 comments

  1. james conrad
    MMMMM, purty. Not a clue where it was made however, looks to be very high quality, are the dovetails hand cut or machine?
    1. RareVictorian
      I'm thinking it's indeed New York, but can't confirm yet. It's been at least a year since I looked at the dovetails but I seem to recall hand-done, not machine and not scallop/dowel.
  2. texmac
    Gorgeous. Do you think the mirror is original, too?
  3. RareVictorian
    I believe that it is not. No bevel and looks too clear.
  4. misslilybart
    "Girlie shops"?
  5. zeke
    *who buys a dresser with no mates* Well I do John, mixing and matching Victorian bedroom furniture or any rooms furniture can make for an interesting and eclectic look. Finding walnut stuff that goes together is a different story from finding Maple which is much rarer. That piece is beautiful and i think if not New York probably Philadelphia. Pabst used a lot of maple for example. If I had the room for it and the price was not too bad I'd jump on it. Just because that particular inlay is not in the Herter book doesn't mean its not Herter. Problem with this piece is it offers very little storage for items found in girlie shops.
  6. RareVictorian
    girlie shops -defined- stores that sell nothing other than overly dramatized women's clothing that are best worn to class reunions. This particular girlie store had designer handbags whose sole purpose in life was to transport one's BYOB wine bottle.
  7. RareVictorian
    Zeke, All of my collection is a smorgasbord, so probably an exaggeration for me to comment that I wouldn't buy a dresser without mates. However, I buy a lot of "anchor furniture" like the main bedstead or sofa and fill in behind it with likely unmatched furniture, but it would be a first for me to start with the dresser as the foundational piece. Victorian Maple is especially tough, in my mind, to create a mishmash bedroom out of.
  8. misslilybart
    Re "girlie shops, " thanks for the edification. It sounds horrific, even giving it the benefit of the doubt!
  9. james conrad
    lol, well, at least we know what it takes to get John into the girlie shops, furniture.
  10. RareVictorian
    This dresser is in one of those shops and acts as a display for purses, etc. As such, no one notices the dresser itself... The lowest they'll go on it, last time I asked, was $3,200.

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