Furniture

1778 Chippendale Miniature Walnut Chest

Appraisal: 1778 Chippendale Miniature Walnut Chest

Transcript

GUEST: Shortly after I married my ex-husband, we went to visit his family in Maryland.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And while they're on the visit, I was down in the basement for some reason, and I saw this chest.

APPRAISER: Just sitting in the basement, okay.

GUEST: Sitting in the basement with tools in it. And I really liked it.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And so I asked my ex-husband's grandmother, Nana, if I could have it. And she said, "Take it home." So I went home on the airplane with it sitting in my lap.

APPRAISER (chuckles): That's great. I don't have to tell you when it was made, because you saw that date when you were in that basement, right?

GUEST: Yes, right.

APPRAISER: 1778. And what you brought is this wonderful, small Chippendale chest. And you were mentioning that your aunt thought it was a salesman's sample, possibly?

GUEST: Nana thought it was a salesman's... That's what she told me it was, it was a salesman's sample.

APPRAISER: I think it would've actually been made for a fairly wealthy, well-to-do family in Maryland.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: It has Maryland characteristics, it's a Maryland Chippendale piece. The person it was made for would've been "B.F." We don't know who that is. The chest was made of local walnut, which would've been found in Virginia or possibly right there in Maryland. And it has these wonderful little knobs, and down here, you have these Queen Anne brasses with these pulls, which have been added later. The front has this lovely fan inlay of lighter wood, and then the feet are wonderful. Those feet are big Chippendale feet, big brackets. And if we take a drawer out, on the inside, we see that it's made of poplar. The color's really nice here, where it's protected from the air, and it has nice oxidation on the back, where the air snuck through the back.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Now, we're just going to quickly tip it up like this and show you the feet, and the feet are the original feet. The only blocks that ever held it were these little glue blocks, which are now missing from here.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it's just absolutely right, the color's great, the oxidation's great. Now, the last thing I want to do is to show you that this top does come off. There's a mahogany top on here, and I mentioned to you that I...

GUEST: Wanted to pop the top, right.

APPRAISER: I asked if you if I could take it off, we're going to take it off carefully. Let's see if we can get it up. If you could hold that side... This was added later, this top.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: It's not original, and now you can see this nice molding here, and you can even see, there's some glass rings on top, where people set a drink.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So you found this in the basement. You had a great eye, noticing it. The retail value on this would be-- and I'm being conservative, to tell you the truth-- would be $50,000.

GUEST: You're kidding.

APPRAISER: I'm not kidding.

GUEST: That's wonderful.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: Wonderful.

APPRAISER: Are you going to continue to keep it as a silver chest, or...?

GUEST: Probably, it's...

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: It's my boy's inheritance.

APPRAISER: That's-- so I'm glad it's going to stay in the family.

GUEST: Yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: And I'm being conservative at the $50,000. I could easily even say upwards of $60,000, so...