Check Your Drawers - Love Dovetails

During the Middle Ages, furniture manufacturing was mainly done by skilled craftsmen who produced handmade furniture pieces for the wealthy and nobility. The furniture was often made from hardwoods such as oak, and was adorned with elaborate designs and carvings, then machines happened.

Most quality pieces of antique furniture will have a dovetail joint in the drawer construction as it was a very early form of construction but was so successful and was used for many 100’s of years. Dovetails were simple to form with existing tools and provided excellent pulling resistance without the need for additional nails or pegs.

The Dovetail joint got its name because of its similarity to the shape of a birds tail. The Dovetail joint is a highly skilled bit of cabinet making and is extremely strong and interlocks securely to connect two pieces of wood.

There is a rule about dovetailing: the fewer the number of tenons, the older the piece. A late seventeenth-century to early eighteenth-century drawer was joined with one huge dovetail or was pegged together.

Lap-dovetail drawer construction, circa 1680.

By 1800, several small dovetails (ranging from three to five) were used on a drawer. Each one was cut out by hand, and the spacing and size of each was uneven.

Georgian drawer with hand cut dovetail.

Mid 1800s, incomes the Industrial movement, aka Early Victorian and Edwardian periods (1837–1901). Furniture was made with machine-cut dovetailing, often with eight or more small dovetails on a drawer. The dovetails were evenly spaced and symmetrical, indicating that the drawer was probably made in the nineteenth century.

Edwardian dovetail, machine cut

You can get an idea of the date of a piece of antique furniture by looking at the dovetail joint. If it is hand cut you know it’s pre 1880 and the more primitive the cut usually means an earlier piece.

Always remember to check your drawers!