These were the two biggest pieces from my grandparents' old bedroom set. I remember seeing them in my grandmother’s basement whenever we’d go over. Primarily used for storage or perhaps just kept because they were too nice to discard, my grandparents got a more modern set I think in the late 1950s or early 60s, relegating these to their cellar for well over 30 years.
Not pictured are a small nightstand that had a built-in electric clock and a makeup stand. There was a second nightstand, but after retiring the bedroom set my grandfather–a shipbuilder was one of his trades–joined one nightstand and the makeup stand into a three-drawer storage unit for his shop on the other end of their basement.
When I got my first apartment, my dad asked if I wanted the two dressers and nightstand. I of course took them. Attempts were made to get the clock in the nightstand fixed at any clock shop I could find, but nobody could fix it. Oh well. I had an alarm clock anyway. And of course a smart phone.
The bottom drawer of the taller chest had a cedar cover to protect sweaters, and there were more small drawers for storing things than I knew what to do with them.
About five years ago–on Christmas morning no less–I went to pull out a sweater and let the hinged cedar cover crash down on my hand. I honestly thought I severed a finger and that I’d see it at the bottom of the drawer once I stopped seeing stars. I did lose the fingernail and a little blood, but the finger was fine. The cedar cover was detached soon thereafter.
Yeah, that may have been the beginning of the end. It seemed any time I opened certain drawers, sawdust from the drawer above would be collected on the clothes below. When I moved here nearly 20 years ago, the movers did a fine job, but did put a nice gash on the top of the longer dresser. Those large drawers were awesome, but there were far too many (7!) knick-knack drawers between the two pieces. I would have traded most of them for one more storage drawer.
Anyway, this set, built in the late 1930s from what I’ve been told, has now been discarded, with the last of it brought to the dump this morning. The furniture no doubt served me well all these years–and my family for nearly a century–but this old set is no more.
I wish I took a few more pictures of them, but only found these recent ones. I likewise wish I took a few shots of the joinery. It’s amazing how a rubber mallet enabled me to get the drawers into manage pieces for disposal. The dovetail joinery used for them did their job for all these years. They don’t make them like that anymore.
