History of dovetails

[Jack Plane]

John,

The only way I could see that happening is if the guy cut his pins first. Maybe your box is a clue to the age-old question.

Exactly! If the tails had been cut first, this faux pas would not have occurred.

In my experience of restoring 17th century British furniture, early (often crudely fashioned, large single) drawer-side dovetails were frequently nailed in lieu of glue. The dovetails secured the front of the drawer so it didn't pull off when the heavy drawers were withdrawn, and the nails prevented the drawer sides from falling out of the drawer fronts.

 

[ttalma]

Mike Your lucky, Sometime I don't even get my mistakes right the first time so I make them again.

 

[Bob Rozaieski]

As Mike said, dovetails have been used for thousands of years. There have been items excavated from ancient Egypt that were dovetailed together. However, in American furniture, I think we started to see them as a more dominant or common method of making cases and drawers in the early 1700s in what we would consider the William & Mary style. They certainly were used prior to this time, but I think this is when they began to become more commonplace. Prior to this style of furniture (Jaccobean period?), pieces were lower to the ground, such as joined chests, made with M&T and floating panels. Chests of drawers weren't really all that common prior to the William & Mary style.

The more common use of the dovetail joint during the W&M period and later allowed the pieces to be lighter and subsequently lifted off the floor onto legs. This is when we start to see chests of drawers and high chests becoming more common. Additionally, nails were individually wrought by a blacksmith and therefore expensive, so using dovetails instead of nail was also a way to make a piece cheaper.

 

[msiemsen]

Mark and Jack,
You guys must not be a skilled as I am. I am sure I could screw that up either pins first or tails first. Leaving the waste and chopping out the part I should keep.
Mike
Thanks to Rob for trying to bring the topic back to its original intent.

 

[Follansbee]

Chests of drawers begin to appear in New England household inventories in the early 1640s…and certainly by the 1660s they are frequently found in Boston inventories. The carcasses are joined, i.e. stiles and rails joined with mortise-and-tenon joints, the sides and rear fitted with panels in the frames. The drawers are rabbeted & nailed in most instances; Boston ones usually employ half-blind dovetails to secure the sides to the fronts & backs. Further, these Boston examples often are two-case construction; containing four, sometimes five drawers. The best example is at Yale University, its lower case has three drawers behind doors, the upper case has two drawers – the uppermost is very shallow, the second drawer quite deep. Many of the Boston examples use imported timber.



Chests of drawers from outside Boston are also known, some are from Salem, others from an unknown shop in northern Essex County, Massachusetts. These chests of drawers are made in one case; and the drawers are rabbeted & nailed. These chests of drawers are made of riven oak, with secondary woods of pine, maple, walnut, etc.

If I did this right, attached is a chest of drawers I made based on some of the northern Essex County examples, c. 1670s-1680s.

Two old, but still relevant articles about early chests of drawers are both found in one volume of the Winterthur Portfolio:

Benno M. Forman, “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635-1670: The Origins of the Joined Chest of Drawers,” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1, (spring 1985): 1-30

Robert F. Trent, “The Chest of Drawers in America: A Postscript,” Winterthur Portfolio (spring 1985): 31-48

P Follansbee

 

[jdavis]

Peter, your chest inspired me to change the subject. How did you define the pattern and recess the field in the drawer fronts...set the pattern and punch the field around it or hand route it?

Also,  is the japanning a black lacquer, enamel, or a  traditional mixture. What are the constituents? Was terpentine and asphaltum used?
Thanks,
John

 

[Jeff L Headley]

I would like to know what "they" called the dovetail before they decided upon dove's. Maybe papyrus leaves. So how many papyrus leaves would you put across a drawer front? I think that for ever papyrus leaf you should have a leaf and a half  the depth before you start your next leaf. How about that for a change of subject?

 

[frangallo]

Or as my brother-in-law calls them-Duckbutts. How many duckbutts do you put on a drawerfront? A rose by any other name smells just as sweet. But possibly not the butt of a duck.
Fran

 

[jacon4]

Hello Everyone,
I stumbled in here while doing a Google search on "wedged dovetails", over the years i have searched hundreds, maybe thousands of articles on this subject and have yet to find out why or how Germanic woodworkers did this. This obsession started over 20 years when i acquired an American 18th century painted 2 drawer blanket chest made of yellow pine. All of the joinery on this chest, including the drawers & bracket feet have these wedged dovetails, which consists of a narrow wooden wedge driven into the center of the dovetail.  I have included a couple of pic's of the dovetails on the rear of the drawer as that is the only place that has a view of the side of the wedges. Any info anyone has would be very welcome.

 

[jacon4]

Here is close up of wedge, i was over limit in above post.

 

[albreed]

I think these wedged dovetails are either a shop tradition or the way around not glueing the joint. Another possibilty is a joint that was too loose, but it's hard to believe that they were all loose. I've done draws where the joint was plenty tight without glue,or wedges, so my hunch is that it's a leftover shop practice carried on by Germanic workers in the new world.-Al

 

[msiemsen]

Schwalbenschwanzverbindung or swallow-tail joints is what the Germans. called them while making them.
I believe Zinken are the pins. Maybe some German sites could clue you in.
Mike

 

[jacon4]

Al,
Yeah, thats what most of the articles say, even  better quality articles in Chipstone,"traditional germanic woodworking" all pretty much say the same thing. Naturally they dont offer the why or how these joints were done. These dovetails are not loose at all, indeed, the dovetails that show on the front of the case are cut so perfectly that they would give the latest CNC milling machine a run for it's money. As for not gluing the joints i agree, thats the only advantage i can think of that makes sense but considering the extra work involved in making this joint, not to mention the risk of splitting the dovetail pin when you drive a wedge into the center of it, there has just got to be a better reason than not using glue?

Msiemsen,
Great idea! I am using Collins Reverso Dictionary to translate various combinations of searches and although i have not found the answer yet it does offer a brand new way of searching. Thanks for the tip.

 

[mikemcgrail]

I think not using glue is the answer. It's really not that much trouble to drop an extra kerf in there and wedge that joint. As long as your wood is nicely selected as that pictured is, its not going to split. Perhaps this is easier than buying/making/or otherwise procuring glue in 18th century at this particular locale.
A man sawing dovetails can put that extra kerf and wedge two pieces of pine pretty fast, faster than I could heat glue and clean up the mess even now, I might say.

 

[frangallo]

They don't make 'em like they used to. A two edged sword.
F