The vendor of this chest describes it as a circa 1780 mahogany bachelor’s chest with a caddy top.
Fig. 1. Inoffensive looking late eighteenth-century chest.
What say the sleuths?
Jack Plane
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Pegs and 'Tails 
Covered in 18thC Laminex ?
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You might be on to something!
JP
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Hi Jack
Depending on height ,it looks like it may have been a bureau desk,and maybe bookcase, looks like has been cut down.
At the least missing solid mahogany overhang top.
Regards Guido.
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re-veneered? no cross or feather banding. The carcass is solid wood or has been improperly veneered
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It a dangerous to speculate before you have all the data and an area where even experts fall into the trap of make sweeping statement from just a image of the facade without examining or eliminating the mechanics and construction of the hole piece first.
Say that the way the top edge is its more than likely missing a applied moulding which was fixed to the top surface with nails to the face front and side.
This is so a upper section would have had a upper section sit on,eg more drawer section or a press box.
From this Image as we don’t have size, so my first instinct is this is the bottom have of a mid 18th century chest on chest missing it top drawer part.
But as above I could be wrong.
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Top clearly not right and I agree at least missing an overhanging top, but the long top drawer makes me think more of the bottom half of something, probably clothes-related given the brushing slide. I vote for a linen chest.
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I don’t see any signs of wear on the from the drawer sides on the faceframe, which is stunningly pristine, despite the sever signs of damage to the fronts of the drawers which appears to be due sun and weather weather exposure. I think the drawers have been recycled into a new carcase. I don’t know what to make of the feet, whether they are equally as damaged as the drawers or mismatched and reused.
Is the term, bachelor’s chest a modern marketing designation? Would this chest have been summarily handed over to the furniture police after a honeymoon?
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The chest measures 32-1/2″ high, 36″ wide and 19″ deep.
I left a clue in the tags at the bottom of the post; ‘caddy top’ would have linked you to other caddy tops, including the caddy top chest in the previous post.
Clearly this chest does not have a caddy top. If one looks closely at the top right corner of the chest, it can be seen that the veneer on the top of the carcase is beginning to lift. My conclusion is that this – as others have surmised – is the bottom section of a chest-on-chest. The waist moulding has been removed and the top of the carcase then veneered with modern thin veneer.
Other than that, the remainder appears to be right.
JP
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You know about Arthur Aston, bludgeoned to death with is own wooden leg? Vx
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