My first huge furniture purchase, ever. Bonus points for age!

On May 31, 2010, I went antiquing.  Yes, well over two years ago.  I went to one of my favorite haunts, the Antiques Marketplace in Putnam, CT.  It's four stories tall and I always manage to find something, even though I don't usually spend more than $100 when I go.  And by the drawing above, you can tell this dresser I'd spotted was WELL out of my price range (because I drew a picture of it instead of buying it...), especially because I had just spent $1000 building a lofted bed, and lived in a room that was 99 square feet (another post, another time, promise!).

However, there was something about this Victorian hotel dresser (circa 1880) I fell in love with from the start.  I like boxes and compartments, and this boasted 14 compartments of all shapes and sizes, each small set with its own different hardware and carving, so many little details, so much craftsmanship...and it was only $1600. 

Lions!

This is the coolest escutcheon I've EVER seen. I can't believe I spelled that correctly on the first try.

It even still had one of its original keys. 

About a year later, the gorgeous dresser was STILL at the marketplace, but with an adjusted price tag: $1800.  They had moved it to another room and started piling knickknacks and books on it, so I had mistakenly thought it sold until I found it.  I guess they had given up on the hopes that anyone would buy it in this economy.

At 7 feet tall and 4 1/2 feet wide, it's a behemoth of bedroom furniture.  WANT. 

Getting divorced freed me from the plain, character-less, no-history, 50's laminate crap bedroom set I so hated, but my ex had actually insisted I not buy the thing so my first act of rebellion (after serving him divorce papers, throwing all his stuff down the stairs, and changing the locks on the apartment) was to BUY THE THING.

So I went back to the Antiques Marketplace, fully expecting to throw down the entire $1800 for the dresser I so coveted if it was still there after all these years.

I got to the marketplace, and it was jam-packed with shoppers, in the middle of its President's Day Weekend sales.  I'd forgotten they were having a sale and was honestly surprised to see so many people.  I found the dresser in a back room behind old books and facing in a different direction from the last time I'd seen it, so it took me a little while.  

When I found it, I was in for a huge surprise.  That $1800 price tag had been replaced with a huge red card marked "SALE: $695".  

Um, what?  $695, and not $1695?  I ran to the front counter and paid for it, right then, right there.  I didn't even know how I would get it home.  I really didn't care. 

But...I have a boyfriend (named Brent) with a big diesel pickup truck and a dad (named Dad).  A week later, they met for the first time, I bought them both breakfast and we went to pick up this fabulous dresser in the freezing cold. And I was curious to see how Brent would react to it, because I had no problems becoming a cat lady if he didn't.

Anyway, somehow Brent and Dad managed to get this up the stairs in no time flat, without fatalities.  

And here it was on the day it came home.

I didn't just buy this piece to look at, so I filled it with clothes.  Though it's beautiful, I need to put things on it as well like lamps and jewelry and vases and knickknacks. 

Other purchases from the Antiques Marketplace include the ruffled dish left of center (used for bracelets and brooches), and the depression glass ashtray with German advertising (I took German in high school/college and it was $5!).

I have never once regretted buying this piece. (January 2018 update: I have now owned this dresser almost six years.  It has survived two moves, and still reigns supreme over all my bedroom furniture.)