A Large Early Victorian Painted Pine Pot-Board Dresser Base c.1850-70; Ex The Lodge House

Origin: English
Period: Early Victorian
Provenance: The Lodge House, RSPB, Sandy, Bedfordshire
Date: c.1850-70
Width: 94.5”
Height: 34”
Depth: 28”

The very well constructed good thick deal pine dresser base,  showing the white paint, distressed commensurate with age, having a characterful thick and well-worn scrub top over three deep frieze drawers with ebonised knob handles, to a charcoal pot board, the whole at almost eight feet long and standing on six well-turned baluster supports and surviving from the early to mid Victorian period and the Lodge House, now the RSPB reserve, Sandy, Bedfordshire.

The base shows some attractive wear and tear with scuffing and losses commensurate with its age as per the photographs. The whole is in very good thick deal pine and is therefore heavier than it would be in usual pine. She stands true and sound and all the drawers now run freely.

The pot board would have traditionally held butter crocks, mixing bowls, copper pots and jugs and would have been a central piece in the bustling kitchen or scullery of a British farmhouse in the nineteenth century.

After Princess Margaret decided not to buy The Lodge (having been advised that a public bridleway through the grounds was a security risk), the RSPB acquired it in 1961. The purchase was arranged by Tony Norris, then chairman of its finance and general purposes committee, who used his own money to facilitate the transaction and was, for one day, owner of the Lodge. It has been their headquarters ever since.

A very good quality and eminently useable base from a prominent estate.