Blanket Chests With Dovetail Joinery



Posted: Monday, March 08, 2010

by Charity Crouch
Blanket Chest heirlooms

Dovetail joinery was a favored construction technique among Colonial wood workers. The beautiful finished look and strength that this joinery gives to blanket chests makes dovetailing as popular today as it was centuries ago.

Colonial craftsmen, especially those who lived in Pennsylvania, preferred to use a joinery style known as dovetailing when creating their blanket chests. There were very logical reason for them to use this joinery type. Dovetailing gives furniture pieces a neat, finished appearance. Strength and durability were the added bonuses to using this style. Dovetailed blanket chest furniture also shows off the talent of the wood worker's skill because it requires precise cuts into the hardwood to create the tight corner fits.

There are two basic choices of dovetail joinery- open and concealed. Dower chests, better known today as blanket chests or hope chests, desks, cupboards and cabinets normally were constructed with open dovetails, so that the joinery was noticeable from both angles. Antique admirers are very fond of this style since the great craftsmanship of every hope chest is openly on display and gives it a nostalgic quality. Open dovetail joinery was made by some craftsmen using a right angle cut pattern. This meant that the straight cuts had to be perfect for the corners to fit tightly together. Another method in this style, that other craftsmen employed, gave the cuts a slightly different angle that appeared to be a zig zag type pattern. This ensured a tighter,longer lasting corner joint which could not be pulled apart.

Aside from the open joinery methods, there were the concealed dovetail methods. This means that only one side of a corner construction would show the joinery style being employed. There were varied lengths and shapes of concealed dovetail joints depending on the furniture type. Concealed single dovetails would have been used in the making of smaller items and drawers, while concealed multiple dovetails would have been employed when creating larger furniture pieces for greater stability. Some craftsmen went so far as to create feathered dovetails which required precise cutting and more skill to create since the wood connections would be much finer for a neater appearance.

Many blanket chests were made with a bottom drawer in order to store a special treasured item such as a wedding dress. Drawers were usually made with both types of dovetail joinery. The back of the drawer would usually have the open dovetails while the front would have been made with concealed dovetails so that no connection would be seen once the drawer was closed. This method is still favored among craftsmen today.

Sometimes the Colonial craftsmen would choose to make hope chests with concealed dovetails for the face front side so that nothing would detract from the extra details he choose to add. Carved designs were greatly favored and usually included vines with floral touches. It was very common for the name of the person receiving the blanket chest and the date to be carved either on the front or on the inside of the lid. Colorful painted designs were also very popular among the wood craftsmen, especially those who originally came from Germany. The designs and the colors chosen had special meanings so that every blanket chest was a unique gift.

Very pleasing examples of antique reproduction blanket chests handcrafted with dovetail joinery can be found at Blanket Chest Heirlooms.com. These blanket storage chests are handmade in the same manner as they were in Colonial times, many by skilled Amish wood workers.

 Charity Crouch is an Art History major. Favorite activities would include hiking with her dogs, practicing Taiji Qigong, working out, watching sports of all types, cooking and baking, reading anything that is not boring, family fun that includes her husband and 5 girls and relaxing in the sun
 Her website, Blanket Chest Heirlooms.com, offers the best in handcrafted blanket chests created from beautiful hardwoods.

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