Here’s a question I am being asked more often these days: What’s a sugar chest?
The reason more people are curious about sugar chests is because the word is out that they have been sought-after by decorators lately, and recent auction reports have them fetching good prices.
The sugar chest is a piece of furniture common in the southern United States—primarily in Tennessee and Kentucky— in the early 1800s.
It was born out of necessity to store a large quantity of sugar for a long period of time, and was in common use only for about 50 to 70 years from about 1790 through the 1860s.
In the early days of the rural south, regular shipments of supplies were few and far between. This was especially true of sugar, which had to be shipped, usually on solid loaf or cone form, up river from New Orleans, and then carted overland.
Some places waited up to 12 months between deliveries.
When deliveries finally arrived, families had to have a place to store up as much sugar as they had the money to afford. That was no small order in areas where a pound of sugar could cost more than a local acre of land.
To store the sugar securely, sugar chests were built up on legs with a bottom drawer for storing any number of things, and to further insulate the sugar from the floor.
To keep moisture and insects out, the storage bin was a four-board construction, meaning each of four sides were solid planks of wood, not a series of connected boards, as one might find on a blanket chest.
The bin opened at the top and was sometimes fitted with a lock.
The interior was sometimes compartmentalized for different grades of sugar. But they all had at least one compartment for storing the sugar scoop, and, perhaps, a ledger to record the dates and amounts of each bit of sugar that was added or removed.
Since folks of every class needed to store their sugar, sugar chests were made plain and fancy. Some were made of select walnut wood and were sometimes inlaid; others were from simple maple, pine, and poplar.
Ordinary sugar chests can be found on today’s antiques market for from $1,200 to $3,000. Most are in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.
Extremely fancy, formal pieces of signed pieces with distinguished provenance have fetched from $20,000 to $30,000, and that’s what all the noise is about.
In their heyday, sugar chests were not relegated to any hidden pantry in the home. They, and their costly contents, were proudly displayed right out there in the parlor.
Today, decorators are proudly displaying their antique sugar chests as bedroom blanket chests, kitchen and dining room sideboards, and even as console table under a mirror in a foyer or vestibule.
Sugar chests are valuable because they are unique, and easily adapt to current use.
They join the long list of furnishings that are special to the antiques market—dry sinks, corner chairs, tête-à-têtes, canterburys, whatnots, plantation and schoolmasters’ desks, etc., that you just can’t find new.
In general, furniture continues to be the best buy on the antiques market. It is hard to find the same quality of wood and workmanship on new furniture as on the vintage pieces, and when you do, it’s very costly.
The drawback is that the antique piece that you need is not always in stock. That’s because the antiques business is not one where a dealer picks up the phone to order more.
It takes time and patience for both the dealer and the client, but finally finding a unique and valuable investment makes it well worth the extra effort.
—Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antiques Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of the August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions, or appraisal requests to aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.