blanket chest
Blanket Chest. A large wooden trunk, also known as a blanket box, in which clothes and blankets were stored. Examples dating from the 16th and 17th centuries may be elaborately carved, though these decorations are often 19th century 'improvements'.
Blanket chests were an essential household item during Australian pioneering days when sophisticated furniture was relatively scarce. The 19th century chests were much plainer than the earlier panelled versions. Many were brought to Australia by immigrants, although many made from red cedar or kauri pine still survive. The chests usually have flat wooden tops (distinguishing them from sea chests which were frequently domed), and in the better versions the side joints are dovetailed. 'Blanket chest' is a fairly broad term, since the trunks were used for storing all kinds of household effects. Carpenters' tool chests, which resemble blanket chests, often have small divisions and partitions with small drawers let into the base of the chest. The trunks today are very often sought after as convenient coffee tables such things being an entirely 20th century innovation.
Blanket chests were an essential household item during Australian pioneering days when sophisticated furniture was relatively scarce. The 19th century chests were much plainer than the earlier panelled versions. Many were brought to Australia by immigrants, although many made from red cedar or kauri pine still survive. The chests usually have flat wooden tops (distinguishing them from sea chests which were frequently domed), and in the better versions the side joints are dovetailed. 'Blanket chest' is a fairly broad term, since the trunks were used for storing all kinds of household effects. Carpenters' tool chests, which resemble blanket chests, often have small divisions and partitions with small drawers let into the base of the chest. The trunks today are very often sought after as convenient coffee tables such things being an entirely 20th century innovation.
Chest of drawers. Until the mid-19th century, the standard chest had either four long, or three long and two short drawers. Rarely were there any exceptions to this rule. A chest with three drawers, or a series of small upper drawers, purporting to be Georgian, will probably have been converted from a chest-on-chest or tallboy. It is true that the 18th century commode often contain two long deep drawers, but this was a much grander and more decorative piece altogether, intended for drawing rooms, not bedrooms, and in any case was usually made to stand on legs. The standard chest of drawers continued to be made throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries (some Edwardian pine chests even had bracket feet), but variations were introduced during the mid-Victorian period, with some chests having seven or more drawers usually a deep hat drawer and smaller glove compartments. Chests with barley-sugar twist or split bobbin-turned supports date from the mid-19th century.
2 item(s) found:
A blackwood blanket box, Australian school, possibly Tasmanian, the rectangular front finely carved in relief with an impressive eucalyptus tree, the top with conforming leaf and branch carving, scroll feet, 66 x 45 x 41 cm.
Pair of Art Deco blanket boxes, with exceptional inlaid tops and front panels, along with curved corners and a bottom drawer