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I need help Identifying my highboy dresser

6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

This is an antique from an estate sale didn't get any information on it.

Comments (14)

  • 6 years ago



  • 6 years ago

    I don't know who made it but I think it's very pretty. How big are those drawer pulls, 3.5" or so? I have an Ethan Allen dresser that's similar in style but no drawers with the fan shaped design in it.


    I really like the drawers with the fan shaped design on them though! I think my aunt has a highboy in the same collection as my dresser but it doesn't really have enough space to be useful to me to buy it from her. ;)

    HU-552983105 thanked Jenn TheCaLLisComingFromInsideTheHouse
  • 6 years ago

    It's a reproduction of a Chippendale style highboy. Is there a makers stamp inside one of the drawers? Lots of furniture makers made chests like that. It looks like a nice quality so likely it is by a named maker like Kling or Pennsylvania House or Thomasville.
    It's not an antique likely from 1970 or later....vintage I guess. Can't see the grain but it's probably cherry.

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    The mark I am talking about would be inside a drawer.


  • PRO
    6 years ago

    I hope you didn't pay much for it. It's obviously a factory made piece with incredibly poor proportions, probably the worst reproduction I have ever seen, and I've seen and sold a lot. It's clear whomever made it had no clue about design and did so from a fuzzy black and white photo. It has no value or collectibility other than using it store store things in the drawers.


    Here's what is should look like.




  • 6 years ago

    The keeping room can be a bit elitist....comparing a nice reproduction piece to an historic piece that has an impeccable provinance and sold recently for somewhere about 3 and a half million dollars, is rather like comparing a bottle of old Bordeaux to a recent California wine that may sell for $30 a bottle. The Califorbia wine will be very nice....not as nice as the very old Bordeaux but better than Charles Shaw red table wine.

    You have a factory made piece....not a fine antique. It's attractive and in excellent condition...will look lovely in a period room, but it's not a fine antique.


  • 6 years ago

    ?

  • 6 years ago

    Not sure what you are still questioning.


    As others have posted, this isn't an antique in the *legal* sense of the world. It is used furniture that was probably purchased by the original owners in the 1970's or thereabouts.


    Hopefully the amount you paid is what it is worth to you as a sturdy piece of "traditional" furniture. The value of what is called "brown furniture" is not that high because it is out of style and therefore not high in demand. That is coupled with there being a huge quantity of it flooding the market as baby boomers die or down size since furniture like this isn't disposable and therefore can theoretically last forever :-).


    Value of traditional used "brown furniture" while not high anywhere would probably vary depending on region. In the South where tastes are still traditional, it is probably higher than in Southern California or the Pacific Northwest. I had some authentic antique "brown" furniture which I needed to dispose of and I literally found it hard to give it away because it simply isn't the taste of most people furnishing their homes.

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    This particular style isn't very common though and it looks like nice quality, although the photos aren't the best. It is not a bad piece of furniture as Keeping Room rudely suggested.

    There is an internet guideline that the Keeping Room should learn. DBAD. Google it if necessary. We'll wait.

  • 6 years ago

    HERE is a 20th century highboy from Kindel remotely similar to yours. Go through the images and compare to yours. Look at drawer & back details. Did you get a key? If it was sold to you as an antique it was misrepresented.

  • 6 years ago

    I will say that here in the midwest you find a LOT of them in antique malls -- I was at a mall on Saturday and probably saw at least 5 -- from really good quality (dove tailed drawers) to ones that were made much more cheaply. The prices, too, were all over the place even for the better made ones but "used" "brown" furniture isn't selling for all that much. For those that like traditional style, it is a nice piece but definitely from the latter part of the 20th century.

  • 6 years ago

    Oh goodness, I am old, I had to look up what DBAD meant!

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Haha, took me a minute to figure out that acronym!

    And IMO, such disparaging comments as the one up there say more about the person making them than anything else...