A drawer handle is the knob, ring, loop or pull fixed to the front of a drawer so that it can be opened. On antique furniture handles are important both decoratively and as evidence for dating, since their style changed with fashion and replacement handles often leave telltale holes, marks or patches.
Early English furniture used turned wooden knobs, iron rings or small brass drop handles. The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw pear-drop and engraved brass back-plate handles, followed by swan-neck brass handles on shaped plates and, in the later eighteenth century, oval stamped plates and ring handles in the Neoclassical style. Regency furniture favoured lion-mask rings and turned knobs, while Victorian makers often fitted turned wooden knobs, and campaign furniture used flush brass handles. Edwardian and later pieces revived earlier styles. When examining a piece, look inside the drawer for extra holes indicating changed handles; replacement is common and not necessarily a serious fault, but original handles are preferable and add to value. Good reproduction brassware can restore a piece's appearance sympathetically, and restorers try to fit handles that suit the date of the furniture.
