Arguably the best array of Welsh furniture on offer in one place

You will find no better array of Welsh antiques on sale than at these shows which concentrate on furniture with a range of farmhouse dressers, tables, chests and cupboards, all made in the Principality.

Mr Bebb generally manages to come up with some remarkable pieces but this year he offers two particularly rare, provenanced items, a small chest of drawers and a large potboard dresser.

Starting in the 17th century, the fashion for embellishing oak furniture with applied mitred mouldings and split balusters in geometric patterns spread throughout Britain so very few pieces can be positively identified as Welsh.

However, the chest of three drawers at Country Antiques is constructed from a distinctive native timber and comes from the Vale of Glamorgan.

Dated 1717 and retaining its original iron handles and traces of lining paper, the chest was considered sufficiently important to be featured in an exhibition of Welsh furniture held at the National Museum of Wales in 1936, and has been illustrated in a number of books on vernacular furniture history.

Welsh dressers vary according to locality and the hue and detail of the example in this exhibition are typical of Merioneth, with an open base rather than the more familiar cupboard arrangement.

Mr Bebb has rarely had so much information about a country piece, having learnt the names, family and home of the original owners and the date and occasion of its acquisition, all etched on a brass plaque.

The dresser was made in 1774 for the marriage of Robert Oliver to Jane, a descendent of Baron Owen, a celebrated mid-16th century Sheriff of Merioneth in North Wales.

The furniture at the exhibition is complemented by a large selection of smaller work which includes a decorative lovespoon carved with W.T. Maker and the date 1836, and a delftware plate inscribed Eliz. Sanders, Llanablodwell 1750.