Cherry Hope Chest
Posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
by Charity Crouch
Blanket Chest heirlooms
Hope chests are a great familiar reminder of our childhood. Our grandmothers stored their most treasured items in their cherry hope chests, then enticed us into good behavior so that we could explore the contents along side them.
Cherry is one of the most sought after wood types to create hope chests. When America was first settled by European immigrants, trees were in great abundance. Cherry wood was easily found in the Eastern forests of America which helped to make it a preferential wood type for blanket chests. Cherry is a dense hardwood that carpenters enjoy working with since it has an enduring quality, fairly even wood grain patterns and holds stain very nicely. The dark coloration of the stain was also a desirable color since many people liked to enhance the outside of their cherry blanket chests with decorative floral designs. The dark shading enhanced the lighter colored designs that were either painted on or carved, such as the inlay designs which were filled with sulfur.
The Shakers and the Amish people of Pennsylvania made cherry hope chests with a very high degree of skill since it was part of their work ethic to do so. These blanket chests are the ones which have made it through the centuries in better shape than most due to the dovetail joinery and mortise and tenon joinery which the wood crofters of these communities chose to use. These cherry hope chests are highly prized by collectors also because of the beautiful designs that these German immigrants painted on the outside areas. These blanket chests usually had the name of the person who received the hope chest inscribed somewhere on the outside or on the inside of the lid. This has allowed historians to place where these blanket chests were created and also has helped to find the name of the original wood artisan.
Many of the blanket chests made today are replicas of the cherry hope chests handcrafted by the early settlers of America. These antique reproductions are extremely popular with most furniture buyers since their styling has never really gone out of style. Even if the hope chest is not the same design pattern as the rest of the furniture in the home, these blanket chests have a way of fitting right in and creating a warm addition to a homes decor. Hope chest furniture can be used as end tables, buffet tables,coffee tables, side boards,as an extra cozy seating area and as entryway sideboards .The extra storage that they provide is also something that many people are looking for in furniture since they reside in smaller living areas than what they would prefer.
There are so many great choices of blanket chest furniture to choose from today. When looking for the wood storage chest which will fit right into your homes decor, handcrafted cherry hope chests made by skilled carpenters will give you a piece of furniture of lasting quality that can be enjoyed now and by your future generations. Blanket Chest Heirlooms.com has beautiful examples of cherry hope chests handcrafted by the Amish.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Charity, do you know what the origin of the term "hope chest" is? Thanks for your interesting article.
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