Those who study old chests, desks and cabinets might find all the pieces made in a large geographic area shared the same kind of hardware. In the previous centuries, buyers didn’t have much choice: with the exception of imported European furniture that very few could afford, a local cabinetmaker had limited access to pulls and probably used what was produced by the local ironmonger. The decision to purchase a particular chest or set of cabinets today is often much affected by the appeal of the hardware. Formal symmetry was an expected attribute of good quality furniture in the distant past. While long drawers require two handles to lever them open conveniently, and small drawers probably had just a single handle, their placement from the front usually had a symmetrical pattern. Old chests generally had several drawers of different widths and lengths with an array of identical pulls. While imported European chests might have brass pulls with elaborate worked designs on the backplates, most early American-made pulls were rather plain. Old brass can vary from highly polished to dark.
Today, manufacturers of new drawer handles call those styles “traditional,” and they differ surprisingly little from company to company, only by varying the name of the finishes offered.īrass was the most common metal for American pulls prior to WWII, aside from wooden ones. But on valuable chests intended for entries and parlors, one style of brass handle with an ornate backplate probably appeared in each room, and even was repeated throughout a home. Until modern times, the simplest and cheapest pulls were painted or stained wooden knobs, and these remained commonplace on kitchen and bathroom cabinets in most homes up past WWII. Inserting a key and turning it served as a lever for opening a glass door or small drawer.
Many cabinets, armoires and secretaries, before WWI, avoided the issue of handles or pulls by locking with a metal key.
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