Empire-Style Three-Drawer Marble-Top Chest – John Widdicomb – 1960s

$5,000

A handsome Empire-style chest of drawers by John Widdicomb Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, combining a rectangular white marble top within a brass gallery rail above a case of book-matched wood grain. The three-drawer front is arranged with black lacquered drawer fronts at the outer top and bottom drawers, each fitted with brass lion-mask ring pulls. The center (opened with a clever push latch) is anchored by a black lacquered panel with an applied gilt-bronze mount depicting a lyre flanked by scrolling foliate vines, a neoclassical motif drawn directly from French Empire and Restauration-period precedent. The case is further dressed with pierced brass fillets along the canted front corners, brass banding between drawer tiers, and tapered brass-capped feet with ebonized inset panels.

John Widdicomb Co. was established in 1897 when John Widdicomb (1845–1910) split from the family’s original Widdicomb Furniture Company to found his own Grand Rapids workshop. He initially focused on Louis XV Provincial-style furniture before expanding across the full range of French and English revival idioms that defined the company through the mid-to-late 20th century.: Louis XVI, Directoire, Empire, Regency, and Chippendale. The firm closed in 2002, with its design rights subsequently acquired by Stickley Furniture.