High chests, both six-legged and bandy-legged, with their dressing-tables were sometimes decorated with the lacquering which was so fashionable during the first part of the eighteenth century.

Illustration 14 shows a dressing-table or low-boy from the Bolles collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is covered with japanning, in Chinese designs. This dressing-table is the companion to a lacquered high-boy, with a flat top, in the Bolles collection. The handle is like letter C, in Illustration 11. That and the moulding around the drawers place its date about 1720.

Coming originally from the Orient, japanned furniture became fashionable, and consequently the process of lacquering or japanning was practised by cabinet-makers in France and England about 1700, and soon after in this country.

The earliest high chests with cabriole or bandy legs are flat-topped, and have two short drawers, like the six-legged chests, at the top. They are made of walnut, or of pine veneered with walnut. The curves at the lower edge are similar to those upon six-legged chests and are occasionally finished with a small bead-moulding.

The bandy-legged high-boy in Illustration 15 is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq. It is veneered with walnut and has a line of whitewood inlaid around each drawer. The moulding upon the frame surrounding the drawers is the separated double moulding, and the handles are of the early stamped type shown in Illustration II, letter B. The arrangement of drawers in both lower and upper parts is the same as in six-legged chests. A reminder of the fifth and sixth legs is left in the turned drops between the curves of the lower edge.

Steps to display china or earthenware were in use during the second quarter of the eighteenth century.

They were generally movable pieces, made like the steps in Illustration 15, in two or three tiers, the lower tier smaller than the top of the high chest, forming with the chest-top a set of graduated shelves upon the front and sides.

The broken arch, which had been used in chimney pieces during the seventeenth century, made its appearance upon furniture in the early years of the eighteenth century, and the handsomest chests were made with the broken arch top.

A lacquered or japanned high-boy in the Bolles collection, owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is shown in Illustration 16. It is of later date than the lacquered dressing-table in Illustration 14, having the broken arch. The lacquering is inferior in design to that upon the dressing-table, and at the top is a scroll design following the outline of the top drawers and the moulding of the broken arch. A large and a small fan are lacquered upon the lower middle drawer, and on the upper one is a funny little pagoda top, with a small fan, both in lacquer. The handles are of an early type, and the moulding around the drawers is a double separated one. Such japanned pieces are rare and of great value.

Cabriole legged High Chest of Drawers with China Steps, about 1720.

Illus. 15. - Cabriole-legged High Chest of Drawers with China Steps, about 1720.

A fine high chest is shown in Illustration 17, from the Warner house in Portsmouth. It is of walnut and is inlaid around each drawer. The upper middle drawer is inlaid in a design of pillars with the rising sun between them, and below the sun are inlaid the initials J. S. and the date 1733. The lower drawer has a star inlaid between the pillars, and a star is inlaid upon each end of the case. The knobs at the top are inlaid with the star, and the middle knob ends in a carved flame.

Lacquered High boy, 1730.

Illus. 16. - Lacquered High-boy, 1730.

J. S. was John Sherburne, whose son married the daughter of Colonel Warner. The legs of this chest were ruthlessly sawed off many years ago, in order that it might stand in a low-ceil-inged room, and it is only in comparatively recent years that it has belonged to the branch of the family now owning the Warner house. A double moulding runs upon the frame around the drawers, and the original handles were probably small, of the type in Illustration 11, letter C.

Inlaid Walnut High Chest of Drawers, 1733.

Illus. 17. - Inlaid Walnut High Chest of Drawers, 1733.

A walnut high chest of a somewhat later type is shown in Illustration 18, belonging to Mrs. Rufus Woodward of Worcester. It is of walnut veneered upon pine, and the shells upon the upper and lower middle drawers are gilded, for they are, of course, carved from the pine beneath the veneer. The frame has the separated double moulding around the drawers. A row of light inlaying extends around each drawer, and in the three long drawers of the upper part the inlaying simulates the division into two drawers, which is carried out in the top drawers of both the upper and lower parts. The large handles and the fluted columns at the sides would indicate that this chest was made about 1760-1770.

Illustration 19 shows a "high-boy" and "lowboy" of walnut, owned by the writer. The drawers, it will be seen, lap over the frame. The "high-boy" is original in every respect except the ring handles, which are new, upon the drawers carved with the rising sun or fan design. It was found in the attic of an old house, with the top separate from the lower part and every drawer out upon the floor, filled with seeds, rags, and - kittens, who, terrified by the invasion of the antique hunter, scurried from their resting-places, to the number of nine or ten, reminding one of Lowell's lines in the "Biglow Papers": -

Inlaid Walnut High Chest of Drawers, about 1760.

Illus. 18. - Inlaid Walnut High Chest of Drawers, about 1760.

Low boy and High boy of Walnut, about 1740.

Illus. 19. - "Low-boy" and "High-boy" of Walnut, about 1740.