This piece of furniture could be called a classic narrow cabinet, if not for its lower doors. The ‘secret’ of this chest of drawers is that all its drawers can be closed at the same time. On the right, under the decorative profile that frames the chest of drawers, a key mechanism is hidden. There is a keyhole in the center of the profile. If you insert a key into it, all the drawers will close at once. Such a chest of drawers could stand in the house of a well-to-do city dweller or in the merchant’s office at the turn of the 20th century. It was used for storing documents.

According to the official version, a chest of drawers was invented in France, but two other countries, i.e. England and Italy, were competing for the right to be called a chest of drawers’ homeland. The first chests of drawers appeared in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV. At that time, the Baroque style was the trendsetter, and fancy ornaments in the form of gorgeous ornaments were popular. The chest of drawers experienced its true heyday at the beginning of the 18th century when it appeared in the homes of the rich bourgeois and aristocracy. Thanks to revolutionary inventions at that time, the production of furniture was simplified. The appearance of the saw made it possible to make plywood, and the chest of drawers, like other furniture, became lighter, stronger, and more elegant.

In the 18th century, there were such varieties as writing cabinet, table cabinet, and dresser. In them, along with storage for things and underwear, there were secret drawers for letters or jewelry. The chests of drawers have become an indispensable accessory for boudoirs and offices. In the 19th century, they were no longer decorated with expensive materials and made from inexpensive wood. Now the chest of drawers, first of all, performed utilitarian functions. The only decoration of this inexpensive furniture was the very texture of wood appearing under the furniture varnish. In the 20th century, a mixture of different styles became noticeable in the appearance of the chest of drawers. Austerity of lines and monumentality coexisted with exotic finishes, primitive forms were made of expensive wood, and African motifs lay on the glossy surface. In the USSR, the chest of drawers was in disgrace for a long time, and furniture designers did not have the opportunity to work on its improvement.