Townsend queen anne chest in curly maple

[TomFromStLouis]

I was impressed long ago by the beautiful simplicity of John Townsend's Queen Anne chest featured in Jeffrey Greene's spectacular "American Furniture of the 18th Century". The book included a full frontal photo I could scale from plus an exploded drawing showing construction details; enough to make the piece.

I had some silver maple set aside that had some moderate curl to some of the boards. I had practiced dovetails but never actually featured them as this piece does. This project is larger than most I tackle and would require careful craftsmanship, so I do not apologize for setting it aside twice and taking a total of four years to finally finish it.

Here is what I worked from:



Big drawer just out of clamps:


They cleaned up just fine:



Time to fit drawers:



Feet and moldings - all shaped by hand - are on, time for some tung oil:



I was worried about the through dovetails on the top; I think they came out okay:



I spent as much time applying the finish as it seemed to want. Most of the curl was featured on top and front.



The piece makes our stairway landing into a tiny room, with storage!



Brasses from Londonderry.

[MarkSingleton]

In a word, Beautiful.

[mbw]

In another word,
Outstanding

[BrokenOlMarine]

I love curly and spaulted woods. Beautiful job.

[SCMedLion]

Very nice. I can't tell from the small pic of exploded drawings, but did the original call for exposed dovetails on top, or would they have been "hidden/mitered" dovetails?

[Latech15]

I love it. You should be very proud.

[shoottmx]

'Tis a thing of beauty!!

g

[Scoony]

Very nice indeed.

[Martin S.]

Excellent work, Tom!

Well done and thanks for posting the pics.

[Steve N]

love that curl