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THE
HISTORY
OF THE WELSH
DRESSER
Wales is
famed for the honest and durable oak furniture which once filled
rural households, from simple three-legged round tables to complex
and sophisticated bureaux with secret compartments. The article which
most epitomises the tradition, however, is unquestionably the dresser.
Dressers
are found in peasant cultures throughout Europe, where they typically
take pride of place in the main living room, but in Wales the quality
and variety produced, as well as the sheer quantity, has led to the
epithet "Welsh dresser" being adopted by the international
furniture trade for over a century.
When, in
1970, I started in the antiques business in west Wales, a typical
local antique Welsh dresser would sell for around £ 100 - but
comparable cupboards and coffers were only in the £10 to £25
range. As prices rose - from £300 to £1,000 and eventually
£10,000 and beyond - it remained the case that if there was one
item a family was loathe to part with it was the dresser; if there
was a single item people wanted to acquire it was a dresser. Those
who interest themselves in the academic study of such articles tend
to regard country-made furniture as somehow derivative of urban and
gentry products. This is not my view, and the dresser stands witness
to another viewpoint: outside of "fashionable" contexts,
furniture developed organically according to the practical
requirements and cultural values of customers, and the skills and
resources of local woodworkers. The Welsh dresser, with its fine
polished surface and colourful display of pottery, is a specifically
non-metropolitan type of furniture.
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The
antique dressers found in mansions and large town houses were
utilitarian structures in painted softwood kept below stairs,
required merely to hold utensils. By contrast, in farmhouses and
cottages the dresser was in the principal living room (the cegin
which served as a kitchen and often a bedroom as well) on view to
family, neighbours and visitors. It combined practical and decorative
functions, had often been acquired at marriage or was a valued
heirloom, and projected the pride the owners felt in their home.
The origins of the
dresser as we know it today started in the mid-17th century, when
inventories show that the better-off farmers in each district were
acquiring more furniture and had access to prestigious and decorative
pewterware and delftware. |
Welsh
oak dresser, from Carmarthenshire, circa 1860
(featured
on website) |
The forerunners
were plain cupboards and side tables, wall-hanging shelves and even
slatted food crates which hung from the ceiling. As a type, it
emerged in various regions of Wales in different forms.
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Welsh
oak dresser from Caernarfonshire,
circa
1730,owned by Sir Kyfin Williams.
(featured
on website) |
In Snowdonia it took on a
cupboard-like appearance and was a close relative of the cwpwrdd
tridarn (three-part cupboard), whereas in most of mid and south Wales
it resembled a wide side table with a plate rack fixed to the top.
Once established, the
dresser developed in different ways in various parts of the country
and distinct local types are readily discernible by the mid-18th
century. In the south-west, for example, the bases had a cupboard
either side of an open space (sometimes called the
"dog-kennel"). In the same area, many dressers were built
to fit into corners - the true ancestor of the modern fitted kitchen. |
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This was a golden age in
the production of Welsh furniture, with larger homes containing a
greater variety of pieces. The increased demand was not fulfilled by
urban workshops, as it was in most of England, even though market
towns such as Carmarthen contained successful cabinet-making firms.
The furniture makers were primarily local village joiners who used
native timber and were neighbours if not relatives of their
customers. As with their other products, the dressers were in essence
functional pieces but they were intended to be on public display and
often included decorative flourishes such as shaped friezes at the
top and shaped aprons below the drawers.
The better ones had rows
of additional 'spice' drawers (for medicinal herbs), elaborate
fretwork and occasionally flowing inlaid patterns. |
Welsh
oak dresser from the
Towy
Valley, Carmarthenshire
circa
1750,
(featured
on website) |
By the early years of the
19th century, even the cottages of smallholders and farm labourers
had a dresser, often of a plainer type and sometimes in the less
expensive deal (grained to simulate oak), but always covered in
gaily-coloured copper lusterware and blue-and-white jugs and dishes.
The dresser survived the coming of industrialization and the
availability of cheap manufactured articles; alongside the
chiffoniers and mirrored-back sideboards produced for parlours, many
industrial homes in the valleys continued to require a dresser in
their living room. Newer styles with glazed racks over enclosed
bases, often with a dog-kennel to hold a sewing machine, continued to
evolve into the 20th century.
In many households the
earlier dressers remained important to their owners and were often
moved into front parlours or dining rooms. The displays were changed
and augmented, with each generation adding keepsakes and souvenirs as
well as family photos. From the early years of the 20th century, as
their local production was coming to an end, they became sought-after
by middle-class urban home owners who recognized their intrinsic
values of honest workmanship and also perhaps their evocation of a
more tranquil rural past, with which many identified. These same
ideas continue to influence many people, particularly if they feel a
strong association with a specific locality or with Welsh heritage in general.
The perpetual demand for
these pieces over such a long period does, however, merit a caution.
The National Museum of Wales noted in 1918 that even at that date
certain sought-after styles were being "made-up" and in the
ensuing years this became something of a minor industry. Such fakes
and "marriages" abound in the market, some now obviously
having acquired signs of age in their own right. |
