The common form of a flat-top, bandy-legged high-boy is shown in Figure 86. The cornice is composed of a quarter-round, a fillet, a cove, an astragal, a fillet, and a cove, which was the form of cornice most used from 1730 to 1770. The moulding separating the two sections is a quarter-round, a fillet, and a cove. The skirt is cut in two sections of an arch separated by a straight line and the pendent drops are original. The knees of the bandy legs are finished with a scroll. In the upper section is a large drawer with a carved rosette, and on either side are two short drawers, and below are long drawers graduated in width. In the frame are four drawers, the center one having carved on the surface a design known as the rising-tun pattern. The handles are in the medium-size willow pattern. The steps, such as are shown on the top of this piece, were often used to display china and glass. A Boston inventory of 1713 mentions earthenwaie on top of a chest of drawers. This piece is the property of the writer.

Figure 86. High Chest of Drawers, 1710-20.

Figure 87 shows a dressing-table of about the same period as the preceding high-boy and, like that high-boy, is made of cherry. The arrangement of the drawers and the cutting of the skirt is in the early form. The legs arc unusually slight and the sweep of the curve is much greater than usual. The handles are in the early willow pattern. This piece belongs to the writer.

Dressing-Table, 1710-20.

Dretsing-Table, 1710-20.

Figure 88 shows another dressing-table of the bandy-legged variety. It has but two drawers, the skirt at the centre cutting too high to admit of a centre drawer. The skirt is cut under the drawer in two cyma curves separated by a straight line and at the centre two cyma curves and an arch. The legs are bandy, terminating in club feet, and a projection at the back of the legs gives the suggestion of a hoof. The handles are the early engraved type with wires supporting the bails. This piece is the property of Mr. Dwight Blaney, of Boston.

A small dressing-table with one drawer is shown in Figure 89. About the drawer on the frame is a bead moulding and the skirt is plain. The legs are bandy, and in the upper part are carved C scrolls, an early feature more popular in England than America.

Between the years 1710 and 1730 the flat-top variety of high-boy was superseded by the scroll-top, which differs from those heretofore described in that the top, instead of having a flat cornice, has one composed of two large cyma curves separated at the centre, giving somewhat the appearance of the broken pediment. The top was generally hooded; that is, the curve of the top carried through to the back. Such pieces are also called bonnet-top (Figure 92). Because of this top the pieces are taller, and the centre of the upper drawer was usually above the base of the cornice, and sometimes the drawers were curved under the cornice conforming to it. The cornice moulding and construction of the earlier scroll-top high-boys were the same as the later flat-top variety.

Dressing-Table, 1710-20.

The flat-top pieces did not disappear after 1730, but because of their simpler construction continued to be made for many years, but they had ceased by that time to be fashionable.

There is a flat-top high chest of drawers belonging to Mr. George M. Curtis, of Meriden, Connecticut, which has burned on the front "made by Joshua Read of Norwich in the year 1752."

There is a house at Wethersfield, Connecticut, which belonged to Dr. Ezekiel Porter, which was furnished about the year 1730. The sleeping-rooms, five in number, were each supplied with a high chest of drawers and a dressing-table, and each chest of drawers had a scroll top. We find advertised, in 1757, "A mahogany case of drawers with an O. G. top," and in 1756 one with an "ogier top."

Figure 90 shows a japanned high cheat of drawen from the Holies Collection that combines a number of characteristics of both the early and late styles. The si roll top has practically the same mouldings as those on the flat top of the japanned high chest of drawers shown in Figure 70, a quarter-round, a fillet, a cyma recta, a fillet, a large cove, an astragal, a fillet, and a little cove. A moulding is fastened to the base of the upper part and also to the top of the frame, as in the other japanned piece, and the skirt is cut in the same design. About the drawers on the frame is a double-arch moulding and the handles are engraved with bails held by wins. There arc seven drawers in the frame. The japanning is in poor condition. This is the earliest scroll-top high chest of drawen that has come under the writer's observation.

Figure 90. Japanned Scroll-Top High Chest of Drawers, 1720-30.

Figure 91. Scroll-Top High Chest of Drawers, about 1725.

Figure 91 shows another early m roll-top high chest of drawers, the property of Mr. Hollis French, of Boston. The cornice consists of a quarter-round, a fillet, a cove, an astragal, a fillet, and a small cove, and the top is finished with three spiral finiala. About the drawers and on the frame is the canal moulding. On the square drawers at the top and bottom is a sunken rounded blocking. The front is walnut veneer with the herring-bone border, and the handles are engraved, having wires to support the bails.