Oak Dressers in History

You may be looking at your oak dresser right now, wondering when dressers first emerged as furniture items, or you may just be a history buff who happens to be interested in this subject . Either way, below is a summary of the highlights of the history of oak dressers.

In the Beginning

Dressers were originally designed as furniture items for the nobility and royalty of the Middle Ages, storing not clothing but items pertaining to feasts and other festivities. Their design was fairly different from current conceptions, consisting largely of a simplistic box on legs, sometimes with one drawer located underneath the main compartment. For the most part, oak dressers during this time period were constructed in England, since that country was where oak trees were most abundant. Most oak dressers were made to order, with no size or shape standardization.

Rebirth

In the Renaissance period, the dresser first began to resemble the modern conception of its appearance, with doors, shelves, and sometimes drawers. It was during this time period that the Tudor and Gothic styles first emerged, the Gothic style incorporating religious and mythological themes and the Tudor style resembling architectural pillars and arches. Oak dressers were more common during this period; in medieval coat-of-arms, oak was a common symbol of strength and endurance.

Colonization

By the colonial period many other styles had emerged, including Queen Anne, Chippendale, Victorian, and Sheraton, although Queen Anne style was the only type to make use of oak in construction. In the Americas, oak furniture would not be widely featured in the main colonial styles, being crowded out by other woods such as pine, birch, and maple. Colonial dressers tended to mimic or hybridize various European and English styles.

My Dresser Baroque Again

In the early 1800s the Sheraton style was at its peak; this style was the first to see mirrors mounted on dressers. Sheraton shares a good deal with Hepplewhite, as the two styles were contemporaries and copied each other extensively. After Sheraton came the American Empire style, a French-inspired design reminiscent of Greek and Roman furniture. The other prominent design style of the 1800s was the Shaker form, ranging from 1815 to 1850. This design was intended to be the essence of simplicity, but still exhibits elements of grace and elegance. Over the course of more than five centuries, the dresser has evolved from a simply box with one drawer to the larger and more complex furniture item that we know today, and may even continue to evolve in the future.

 

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