Eastlake furniture was designed and built between 1868 and 1890. It's the other "arts & crafts" furniture that was moving away from Victorian furniture. The Pin and Cove (Knapp Joint) was created on a Knapp Dovetailing machine that produced most of the pin & cove joinery between 1871 & 1900. 250 manufactured drawers could be produced per day with Knapp joints on a Knapp Dovetail Machine. If a manufacturer operated 365 days a year, that's 83 - 3 drawer chests being produced per day, or 30,000+ per year for 20 years, yielding over 600,000 three drawer dressers per manufacturer. (The Knapp joint fell out of fashion around the time William Morris Arts & Crafts furniture was becoming popular.
"Pin-and-cove dovetail" is self-contradictory. The Knapp joint was used INSTEAD of dovetailing because it was easier to fabricate using machinery. The time period is also wrong - manufacturers began using Knapp joints in the early 1870's and it fell out of favor by about 1900. As the Eastlake period lasted from about 1870 to 1890, it overlapped the Knapp joint period, though some manufacturers still used traditional dovetail joints. I just bought such a piece today - Eastlake chest with dovetail joints. While some Eastlake style pieces might have still been produced into the 1890's, furnishings were already transitioning into the Arts and Crafts style, and the revival of valuing craftsmanship spelled the end of the Knapp joint as well.
Our house was built in the 1890's and has Eastlake trim and door hardware. We bought a desk from our neighbor for only $5.00. It is also Eastlake. It is painted black and it looks like there was something that was on the top and taken off. Just looked at the drawer and it is the same type as in your video. So exciting to know about when it was made. Could you tell me if it would have originally been painted black and what might have been on the top? Thank you.
