Saturday, August 16, 2014

American of Martinsville, part deux

If you follow my blog or watch my posts, this may look familiar. In fact, it is the second of 2 identical American of Martinsville 9 drawer dressers that I've restored in as many weeks. This is probably the nicer of the 2. The figuring on the top of the case is really spectacular. If I kept it I don't think I'd put anything on top so I could gawk at the lovely walnut. This one has very few minor flaws, I would say nearly flawless. Because of the lack of imperfections and spectacular figuring I've valued this one a bit higher than the first. The pic of the right side of the piece has some light shining on it, they are not flaws. Below is my description from the first piece.

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

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