In my opinion your seeing a wax build up. LESS IS BETTER ! There are products in the spray waxes that besides make your furiniture feel "smooth" also break down your finish. Did you ever notice chair arms or the top back of that chair ,it feels sticky ? That's from that chair having been waxed once a week for it's entire life and the oils in our bodies having broken down the finish. When a piece leaves my shop it's "rubbbed" with a 0000 fine steel wool and waxed with a spray wax( we use guardsman ). There is not a special wax to use, but to do it correctly you need to buff it like you would your car. Spray the wax on, rub it in with one rag and then with a dry white t-shirt buff/polish the finish. On a flat surface your shoulder should hurt when your finished. Your creating friction with that dry t-shirt and bringing up or down the sheen based on your desired look. Stay away from all of those "snake oils" . If you have a good finish your really not doing the piece any good by rubbing a paste or liquid on the "top" of that finish. just my 2 cents :)

Not sure if you are looking for a "sell for" value or a claim on the tax valuation? And what they would bring also depends on who might be at the sale. In it's present condition, I doubt that the dresser will bring more than $250, in a barn sale. And the mirror is a pier mirror, likely once stood in a frame on the floor and tilted as needed to reflect up or down. Very nice piece, put again only part of the whole. At a barn sale, perhaps $125? Unless your crowd will really be looking to bid the moon for the benefit of the animals, I'm afraid that's all you can expect. Linda C

I have looked all over the net trying to find the site I took my information from that told the main period of use of that type of dovetailing and can't find it....and the George Grotz book that I own ...or used to own seems to be gone....so I can't refute you on the dates of that type of dovetailing. Charles Eastlake was not a furniture maker nor an architect but an Englishman who wrote a book about good style and people adopted his views as the next thing after the over done excesses of the Victorian and Renaissance Revival periods. Eastlake style furniture was characterized by chip carvings and applied moldings, not the curvy moldings and carved animals and leaves of the earlier periods. I can't find an exact date for one of thoise "gentlemen's chests" on the internet. All the listings I find say early 20th centure. And, those that I have seen sell at auction were documented as being of that period.....and I started going to auctions about 1964. Linda C

TR, I saw that exact patent that you mentioned in my search yesterday! I quickly realized that wasn't it, so am still mystified. I'd ask on the antique board, but I checked it last night and see that it isn't very active. I may go see it just for the novelty of the drawer thing, to see if I can figure it out. It's a fairly large piece. The seller wrote last night "It's 36 inches tall, and 44 wide and approx 20.4 deep inside the drawer. The drawers need some wax to open/close a little better." Most old bureaus like this are about 17.5 inches deep overall. I know that due to looking for them for ages to make my bathroom vanities. This one, with the inside of drawers being 20+ deep is a whopper!