Cherry Wood Grain

Cherry Wood Grain

Cherry Hope Chest
By Charity Crouch

Cherry is one of the most sought after wood types to create hope chests. When America was first settled by European immigrants, trees were in great abundance. Cherry wood was easily found in the Eastern forests of America which helped to make it a preferential wood type for blanket chests. Cherry is a dense hardwood that carpenters enjoy working with since it has an enduring quality, fairly even wood grain patterns and holds stain very nicely. The dark coloration of the stain was also a desirable color since many people liked to enhance the outside of their cherry blanket chests with decorative floral designs. The dark shading enhanced the lighter colored designs that were either painted on or carved, such as the inlay designs which were filled with sulfur.

One of the most favored design styles of cherry hope chests to be copied in America from European styles was the Queen Anne style. What was interesting was that even though people here called it 'Queen Anne', the design elements were very different than the 'Queen Anne' style furniture being made in Europe, most especially in England. American carpenters took this style and made it their own. All along the Eastern seaboard, every city had its own version of the queen Anne style. So, of course, all of the cherry hope chests would have been made in each of these distinctive styles. All of these blanket chest had beautiful flowing design elements and a wonderful assortment of leg patterns.

The Shakers and the Amish people of Pennsylvania made cherry hope chests with a very high degree of skill since it was part of their work ethic to do so. These blanket chests are the ones which have made it through the centuries in better shape than most due to the dovetail joinery and mortise and tenon joinery which the wood crofters of these communities chose to use. These cherry hope chests are highly prized by collectors also because of the beautiful designs that these German immigrants painted on the outside areas. These blanket chests usually had the name of the person who received the hope chest inscribed somewhere on the outside or on the inside of the lid. This has allowed historians to place where these blanket chests were created and also has helped to find the name of the original wood artisan.

Many of the blanket chests made today are replicas of the cherry hope chests handcrafted by the early settlers of America. These antique reproductions are extremely popular with most furniture buyers since their styling has never really gone out of style. Even if the wood storage chest is not the same design pattern as the rest of the furniture in the home, these blanket chests have a way of fitting right in and creating a warm addition to a homes decor. Hope chest furniture can be used as end tables, buffet tables,coffee tables, side boards,as an extra cozy seating area and as entryway sideboards.The extra storage that they provide is also something that many people are looking for in furniture since they reside in smaller living areas than what they would prefer.

Cherry Wood Grain