It will be interesting in the following pages to trace how the style developed until it reached the point where its original object had been lost sight of, and pieces were built with drawers so high that they could only be reached with a step-ladder.

The development of the high-boy was peculiarly American. In England and on the Continent they never were very popular and practically went out of existence in England before 1725, being replaced by the commodes which had come into vogue from France. In America, however, very few commodes are found, and the high-boy continued to be popular and to be developed until about 1780-90 when the chests of drawers of the type of Shearer, Sheraton, and Hepplewhite superseded them.

The introduction of these chests of drawers on high legs or frames marks the time when the character of construction was changed, and from that period the use of oak was gradually discontinued and the massive style seen in the chests and early chests of drawen was no longer followed.

Just when the high chests of drawers came into fashion cannot be determined exactly. The only records which could show this are the inventories, and they cannot be depended upon tor placing the date when a new style came into use, for an article may have been in use for a number of years before it was spoken of in a will or inventory. Ten years may safely be deducted from the first inventory mentioned to obtain the date when the fashion changed. Such a radical change as that from the low oaken chest of drawers to chests of drawers on high frames would seem to call for special mention in recording them, but this is seldom the case. There arc, however, two new expressions used in connection with the chests of drawers which indicate that a change had taken place. The first of these is "a chest of drawers on a frame," first met with in New York in [689, the price being given as £4 10s. The second expression referred to is "chest of drawers and table." As both chests of drawers and tables had very frequently been mentioned separately up to the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the very common use of the expression "chest of drawers and table" as one item denotes that they bore some relation to each other, which had not previously been the case. There can be no doubt that a "chest of drawers and table" were a high chest of drawers and dressing-table, or, in other words, a high-boy and a low-boy. In the New York records the expression "chest of drawers and table" does not occur as one item, but during the last quarter of the seventeenth century many of the chests of drawers inventoried are immediately preceded or followed by a table, and when the wood of which the chest is made is mentioned the table is invariably the same wood. The first mention of this kind is in the inventory of Dom Nicolas van Rensselaer, January 16, 1678, in which a chest of drawers of nutwood, followed by a table of the same wood, are valued at 60 guilders (about £5 in English money). Another entry in 1686 is "a wallnut table £l, 15s, a chest of drawers wallnut £3." The facts here shown and the high valuations indicate-that these items refer to high chests of drawers and dressing-tables. The first mention of the chest of drawers and table is at Philadelphia in 1684: "chest of drawers and table IX" Both of these values are much above those of any chests Of drawers previously mentioned, and this fact further indicates the change of style. In view of these facts we have no hesitation in naming the year 1675 as about the date when the high chests of drawers were first known in the colonics. The frames upon which the early chests of drawers were raised were of two general varieties those having turned legs (Figure 53) and those having bandy or cabriole leg! Figure 79). These chests of drawers on frames were quite different in construction from the early chests of drawers. In the table part, the outer turned legs dowelled into stiles which extended to the moulding separating the two parts, and the tides and fronts were framed into these stiles; the upper section had sides of planks of wood without stiles. The top, bottom, and runners for the drawers were dovetailed into these sides. This upper section was enough narrower than the lower part to take up the difference in width between the planks of wood and the stile, so that the drawers of both parts were in the same vertical line. There were six legs, four in front and two at the back. The earlier six-legged high-boys had turned legs, cup-shaped, and between each leg the skirt was cut in a simple arch above which was a single long drawer. The two mouldings separating the upper and lower sections were one on the table part and one on the upper part. That on the table part was a thumb-nail moulding, while that fastened to the upper part was a cyma curve with a broad fillet. The moulding at the top was a quarter-round, a fillet, a cyma recta. About the drawers was a single-arch or large astragal moulding. The stretchers were cut in the same design as the skirt. A little later the skirt and stretchers were cut in a double cyma curve, and in the centre an arch separated two cyma curves, and the single long drawer was replaced by two square ones with a short narrow one between. To the top moulding sometimes was added an astragal; the cut edges of the skirt were finished with a thin strip of wood slightly projecting beyond the surface.

The next type had turned legs, trumpet-shaped (Figure 65), the skirt and arrangement of the drawers remaining the same, but about the drawers on the frame were applied double-arch mouldings. The top moulding was elaborated by adding a short cove, making the top moulding a quarter-round, a fillet, a cyma recta, a fillet, and a cove, and still later was added to the moulding a large torus or cushion frieze which made the front of a cornice drawer (Figure 67). The table part would sometimes have five and six small drawers. Still later, in place of the torus moulding, was added a large cavetto which was sometimes the front of a drawer.