My parents had this piece of furniture since at least 1975. I have no idea where or how it was acquired, but we lived in Nebraska at the time and I'm certain my parents would have acquired it in Nebraska.Ā
The sides of some of the drawers seem to beĀ cedar. It is a veneered piece and it appears the piece is made ofĀ a lighter wood, not oak, not pine - perhaps alder. The wood has virtually has no grain characteristics to it. The back of the dresser and the bottom of the drawers areĀ a thin panel of wood.
On the back of the dresser in the upper right corner, thereĀ are some white paint-like smudges and a very, very faint white paint-likeĀ mark. It looks like it could have been a two or three at one point. I can't tell if this was only a single number marking or if it was a multiple digit number and the other numbers disappeared over time. In the bottom left corner of the back panel is a black stamped number - "750". The stamped numbers are not solid, they have spaces in the number.Ā Maybe it was just a poor stamp quality, but it appears more uniform in nature. The seven has a space just under the horizontal line, the five has spaces that are in the center of the digit, and the zero has spaces almost as if it was a kinda like parentheses, but more squared in shape. On the zero you couldĀ say there is a space in the center of the digit both top and bottom.
There is a small rectangular drawer that you can move the length of the top drawer, it slides on two wood slats. This small rectangular drawer has a lining on the bottom that looks like a gray burlap of sorts covered by a brown velvet like material. The bottom unfinished veneer of this drawer has grain characteristics I'm not familiar with. It looks more like spider legs, very thin striations combined with areas where the really is no grain apparent.
I've done some research and I think it could be a Berkey & Gay from the early 1900 to 1915, because of the geometric, manufactured cut out type appliques, the what seems to be lower quality wood.
But, I've also seen pieces from Bernhardt that appear to have very similar scrolling on the front legs. However, the main wood used doesn't appear to be of high quality, whichĀ Bernhardt typically used.
Can you help?
If you have any additional questions that might help you with an appraisal, please let me know.
Thanks, Darla