Tuesday, July 29, 2014

American of Martinsville 9-drawer dresser

I'm back!  I finally had some free time to work on furniture.  It felt really good to get back into this.  The time away made me realize just how much I do enjoy doing these restorations.  I still get excited to put on that first coat of finish and watch the beautiful materials jump to life.

This is a walnut 9-drawer dresser by American of Martinsville.  Its design has been attributed to George Nelson although I haven't found direct evidence of that.  Regardless it is a nicely designed piece that has stood the test of time and still looks classy today.  I did change up the design just a bit on this one.  Originally the inset panels on the doors were showing a painted black surface with a gold pinstripe around the edge.  It was giving the piece a dated design that I wasn't a huge fan of.  However the inside surface of those panels were walnut, which I am a fan of.  I was able to take the panels out and turn the inside surface to the outside.  Now the look is much less dated.  This piece also has stylish offset polished aluminum pulls.  I think this is why it is attributed to George Nelson, although other designers like Robsjohn-Gibbings have used this as well.  The drawers also have a cool veneer lay-up with horizontal plain sawn walnut inset in vertically oriented rift sawn walnut.  The door frames are all of solid walnut.  All the drawers function well and the case and legs are structurally sound. 

Dimensions are:  70"W x 31"H x 19"D

Sold!











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