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Antiques & Collectibles

Antique Highboy Dresser value?

10 years ago

I have an antique Highboy dresser in excellent condition. I was wondering if anyone could take a guess at its value? It's 34" wide, 20" depth and 5 feet tall.

Featured Answer

egbar

10 years ago

Photos of inside drawers, sides of drawers, bottom of the outside of the drawers, and inside of chest without the drawers would be helpful. please include side and back view of body of the dresser as well, if you can. Has it been stripped and re finished at some point? It is difficult to tell what kind of wood it is from the photo. On the underside of the body or the back, or on any of the drawers are there any markings? My first impression is that it is not super old, but photos can be very misleading. What do you know of its history?

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Comments (9)

texasredhead
10 years ago
Its value is about what you paid for it. It appears to be oak but it is hard to tell. "Antiques" tend to lose much of their value when they are stripped and made to look like new furniture.
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Comments (14)
Not sure what you are still questioning. As others have posted, this isn't an antique in the *legal* sense of the world. It is used furniture that was probably purchased by the original owners in the 1970's or thereabouts. Hopefully the amount you paid is what it is worth to you as a sturdy piece of "traditional" furniture. The value of what is called "brown furniture" is not that high because it is out of style and therefore not high in demand. That is coupled with there being a huge quantity of it flooding the market as baby boomers die or down size since furniture like this isn't disposable and therefore can theoretically last forever :-). Value of traditional used "brown furniture" while not high anywhere would probably vary depending on region. In the South where tastes are still traditional, it is probably higher than in Southern California or the Pacific Northwest. I had some authentic antique "brown" furniture which I needed to dispose of and I literally found it hard to give it away because it simply isn't the taste of most people furnishing their homes.
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Comments (2)
Thank you so much dor that info! it helps to know these things eapecially when trying to decide what to keep and what to replace as furniture ages. now i can get rid of this dresser in the near future with no regrets. i appreciate your answer!
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sam_md
10 years ago
unigeezer, compare your maple highboy repro with the one in this antiques roadshow link. Notice how the drawers do not graduate bottom to top like the old ones do. An antique will have a lock for each drawer. Read the commentary of the link and get back with us and tell us what you have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Genuine Antique Highboy
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
It's a mid-century reproduction, loosely called "Colonial", not anything special, based on what I see.

Check it carefully for labels, post photos of the construction, please.

As storage, they are nice, but hard to sell because "Colonial" is out of fashion now.
hounds_x_two
10 years ago
Agreeing with others. Looks to be maple, mid-century (20th century) colonial style.
calliope
10 years ago
Ditto
Dorothy Stansell Fredette
6 years ago
I just purchased the exact same dresser today for $60. The girl said her Mom has had it forever as long as she can remember, but she might have been born in the 80's. I was thinking 60's or 70' the drawers are not dovetailed and it looks like maple. Here is mine.
p
lindac92
6 years ago
Could be as early as the 50's....nice! Good buy for 60 bucks!!
HU-284510721
last year
What's reproduction worth?

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