Figure 70 shows another six-legged high-boy of whitewood, the property of Miss C. M. Traver, of New York. The cornice is composed of a quarter-round, a fillet, a cyma recta, a fillet, and a cove with the torus drawer below. There are three drawers instead of two at the top and six drawen in the frame, and a double-arch moulding is about the drawers, The skin is cut in cyma curves and segments of circles and the stretchers in double arches. The legs are turned in the cup shape. This piece illustrates the fact above noted, that a piece sometimes combines early and late characteristics, for the legs belong to the early type while the mouldings stamp it indubitably late.

Figure 70. High Chest of Drawers, 1710-20.

Figure 71. High Chest of Drawers, 1710-20.

A very unusual piece of this period is shown in Figure 71. The cornice is a quarter-round, a fillet,a cyma recta, a fillet, and a cove. A double-arch moulding is about the drawers. The drawer fronts are veneered with walnut, the grain, beautifully matched, surrounded by a herring-bone border. There arc but four instead of six legs and these are turned in cup shape. The stretchers are X shape like the dressing-tables. The skirt is cut in long cyma curves and an arch. This piece is in the Bolles Collection.

Figure 72. Dressing-Table, 1700-10.

Figure 72 shows a dressing-table of the second period, in the writer's possession. The fronts of the drawers and the top are of walnut veneer with herring-bone border. The legs are turned cup shape, and double-arch mouldings are about the drawers.

Another dressing-table is shown in Figure 73. The turned legs are octagon and the X-shaped stretchers are cut in Flemish scrolls. At the centre, where the stretchers cross, is a small plate-shaped piece. The skirt is cut in arches and about the drawers is a double-arch moulding. This piece is of Dutch origin.

Dressing-Table, 1700-10.

Dressing-Table, 1710-20.

Dressing-Table, 1710-20.

Dressing-Table, 1710-20.

Figure 74 shows another dressing-table with double-arch mouldings about the drawers and turned trumpet-shaped legs. A fifth ball foot supports the point where the X-shaped stretchers cross. The top is not original. Trumpet-turned legs appear but rarely on dressing-tables of this style, and then they are usually of pine and rather cheaply made. The last two tables are in the Holies Collection, owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Figure 75 shows a dressing-table, the property of Mr. H. W. Erving. It is made of pine and has the double-arch moulding! about the drawers, and trumpet-turned legs. The handles are drops with diamond-shaped plates.

Figure 76 shows an unusual dressing-table with four well-turned legs in a vase-and-ring pattern, with turned stretchers between the legs, in the manner of the tables of this period. About the drawers are double-arch mouldings, and the skirt is cut in the usual curves. The handles are drops with diamond-shaped plates. This table is in the Bolles Collection.

Figure 77 shows a miniature cupboard of drawers standing on a frame with six cup-shaped turned legs. It is but 263/4 inches high and 73/4 inches wide. Inside the cupboard part are ten small drawers surrounded by single-arch mouldings, and in the lower section are three small drawers without mouldings. This piece is the property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Figure 77. Miniature Cupboard of Drawers, about 1700.

Figure 78. Early Handles, 1690-1720.

The types of handles which were used on the chests of drawers with turned legs are shown in Figure 78. The first, known as drop handles, had the drops both solid and hollow, the latter having the appearance of being cut in two. The plates and escutcheons are in many shapes, some being round with the edges pierced, Others shield shape. These drop brasses we will call handles of the first period. The second style has a bail handle fastened with bent wires, and the plates are generally the shape of those shown, but not always engraved. The drop handle is the older and is sometimes found on chests in both iron and brass. These brasses with bail handles held by bent wire we will call handles of the second period.

Figure 79. Japanned High Chest of Drawers, 1700-25.

The transition from the turned-legged high-boys to the bandy or cabriole legged ones was simple and followed the general fashion which became popular in the early eighteenth century. Their general construction was similar to the later six-legged type. They are occasionally found with a double-arch moulding about the drawers and veneered walnut fronts, and the writer has seen one with a tingle-arch moulding and drop bran handles, but that was a crudely made piece of pine. There is also found the canal moulding, which consists of two small parallel astragali placed upon the frames about the drawers Figure 68), and also a single astragal or bead moulding is found about the drawers on some of the later pieces (Figure 79). As a rule, however, the drawers were overlapped; that is, there was a thumb-nail moulded edge which projected slightly over the edges of the frame. The cornice mouldings of the earlier bandy-legged high-boys were similar to those found on the later six-legged pieces - a quarter-round, a fillet, a cyma recta, a fillet, and a cove with and without an astragal. But this soon was superseded by the almost universal moulding found on the earlier flat and scroll-top pieces, consisting of a quarter-round, a fillet, a cove, an astragal, a fillet, and a small cove, and this form of moulding continued to be used until the high-boy went out of fashion. The mouldings separating the two sections also changed, and after the style was well established the thumb-nail moulding on the frame part disappeared as did also the moulding which was fastened to the upper part. In their places was substituted a single moulding fastened to the top of the table part into which the top set. The woods used were walnut and walnut veneer, pine, maple, cherry, and, later, mahogany.