Fine & Rare 17th Century Oyster Veneer Chest.

A fine and documented William and Mary period chest of drawers.
The top is veneered in well chosen olive oysters laid in geometric patterns incorporating, concentric circles, roundels and corner arc quadrants inlaid in sycamore.
The ends are cross banded in olive having a centre panel of olive oysters.
Divided by cross-grain D-mouldings the two short over three long oak lined drawers are decorated with a sycamore banding and book-matched olive oysters.
The handles and feet are 18th century modernisations, which we have kept so that the piece remains identical to when it was photographed in 1954 in Ralph Edwards own collection.
For those unaware, Ralph Edwards (1894-1977) was Keeper of the Department of Woodwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum and one of the early scholars to attempt a serious categorisation of English Furniture by reference to contemporary sources. The Dictionary first appeared between 1924 and 1927 but the revised 1954 edition was perhaps the more scholarly and influenced generations of furniture historians and collectors. Owning a piece illustrated in the Dictionary was once the very pinnacle of a collector`s aspirations.