Some things just HAVE to come home with you . . .

. . . and this was one of them, a honey oak chest on stand, dating from about 1700.  We spotted it at the local auction last Saturday, when we popped in first thing to view.  It had some faults (you can spot there are a couple of areas on the left of the bottom drawers where something was spilt down it, so my OH will have to rub that down and oil it.) It is minus the pad feed on the Cabriole legs, and we need to replace drawer runners (which were on the SIDE of the drawers and not beneath, at this period in time). However, we thought if it went at the right price, it was worth investing in it as I was short on space for clothes storage and it was "our sort of thing".

As you can see, it is very much in residence, so it DID come at the right price!  In fact, hammer price was £90 (plus 15% on top for buyer's premium).  Looking at the construction of those Cabriole legs I do wonder if whoever made this had ever seen that style of leg before or just been drawn a little sketch. Certainly, once such a style became all the rage, Cabriole legs were very much more stylized than this.  Actually, I prefer these to the later skinny ones.

As you can see, in between photos we had a change of wooden ships, and prefer the larger one.

As is often the case, there have been several changes of handle to follow changing fashions.  It would appear it was restored around the turn of the 19th into 20th Century, and these pewter Arts & Crafts handles fitted, at the same time as a new back.  We may change back to the style of brass handle it would originally have had but those alone will cost as much or more as the chest on stand, so that can wait.

Of course, it was designed for cats to lurk under.  Little Whale was soon in residence!

We buy history.  It thrills us to think that the oak trees which were felled to make this piece of furniture around 1700 were saplings at the time of Agincourt, growing when Henry VIII was a lad, saw him married and succeeded by Elizabeth 1, and saw the rise and fall of the Stuarts.  It then became a piece of Georgian furniture and here it is being used in the second Elizabethan period . . .

Oh, and in between bidding for it (on the phone, go me!!) and paying for it, we did a car boot sale, and cleared several more piles and boxes of surplus "stuff" before getting rained off, and took sufficient money to pay for this item in cash next day.  So it feels as if it were almost free . . .