The top picture is of an 18th cnetury 'Mule Chest' and the bottom one of a standard 'Chest of Drawers' You can see how the chest of drawers developed from the mule chest - and how the mule chest developed from the 'Coffer'

The chest of drawers is one of those pieces of furniture that we truly take for granted, but imagine just how inconvenient life would be without them. Even life in the kitchen would be more painful (for me, anyway) without drawers for stowing all the necessary equipment for making my tea.

The chest of drawers as we know it today only appeared in the 17th century. It had developed over many centuries from something we call a coffer.

Coffers were one of people’s first efforts to make pieces of furniture offering some degree of comfort in the home. A coffer is basically a crude, long, deep box raised off the ground with either legs or feet, sporting a lift-up lid – the kind of thing that we might think of as a toy or blanket box today. For many centuries, though, coffers were furniture’s jack of all trades. They acted as trunks for storing treasure, secure places for weapons, food larders, and places to keep clothing clean and dry.

As if these weren't enough uses, in the days when we lived in rooms with cold, damp mud or stone floors, coffers were great places for sitting on to keep your bottom warm and your feet dry. People could also use them as dining tables, draught excluders, beds, and – when they no longer had much use for their coffers – could even get buried in them!

Coffers often had great big grab handles on each side for easy transportation. In troubled times, when a person might need to up and leave at short notice – as an invading army or raiders were closing in, for instance – they would chuck all their valuables into their coffer and off they could go running for the hills and safety with all their worldly goods in one place.

Some coffers even acted as vaults or banks. For example, in the 12th century Henry II ordered that plain, planked coffer chests should be placed in all churches for cash contributions for the relief of the Holy Land.

Even though coffers were everyday, basic pieces of furniture and were made to be used day in and day out, some can be found with the astoundingly fabulous carving to their fronts. We can see this on ones made from the 14th century onwards. Gothic circles and similar formal carvings were popular before the fashion moved on to more expensive and elaborate pieces with armorial shields, dragons with and without St George, and depictions of wondrous battles.

Less expensive, but which I personally find more appealing, are the intimately personal family coffers, ones with the original owners’ initials carved into their fronts and, even better, sometimes with a date. These particular coffers were often given as wedding presents, and I think they are a real and fascinating connection to the past.

For basic and functional pieces of furniture, coffers generally survived pretty well.

Later ones, say from the 17th and 18th century, turn up regularly in antique shops and auction rooms. They can be bought from only a few hundred pounds and make great hall tables, coffee tables and, of course, blanket chests. Medieval 800-year-old ones have also survived and can be found in some churches and museums.

By the 17th century, then, these jack-of-all-trades coffers had been around, working hard for their living, for over a thousand years. Their popularity, however, was about to come to an end.

A new type of furniture piece entered the market place. They became known as mule chests, and were simply coffers with a bottom drawer. Furniture makers added one wide drawer or two narrow ones to the bases of standard coffers, creating fabulous storage areas for smaller, more valuable, or more personal items, making such objects easier to get at and not so easily lost in the vast space below the lid. As we might imagine, this new design became incredibly popular. People probably realised that they’d been losing items in the bottom of their coffers for years and loved the practicality of the drawers. It didn't take long, then, for the lift-up lid to be dispatched entirely and for the whole carcass to be filled with wonderful and useful drawers.

By about 1690, then, coffers and mule chests were fading out of production and the great chests of drawers had arrived. They had been a long time in the coming, haven't been altered or improved since, and will always be an essential part of any home.

Buying an antique chest of drawers.

Chests of drawers are one of those types of pieces of antique furniture that have very often been hacked around with and altered. As fashions came and went, people would change the handles, for instance, to bring their chests up to date. Large chests were made smaller or narrower; legs were chopped off and then new ones fitted in the latest fashion.

Plain Georgian mahogany chests from the 18th century were sometimes sent back to the cabinetmakers in the 19th century for improvements. These could be in the form of heavy, deep carving, which absolutely kills the value today, or of being inlayed with exotic woods and decorated with marquetry patterns to match the most expensive pieces made in the 18th century.

Originality being everything, here are a few things to look out for:Handle changes.

Open the drawer and examine where the handles are fitted. Look out for evidence of previous handles, such as holes that serve no purposes, as these are generally signs of a handle change.Cut-down drawers

As a rule of thumb, small chests of drawers are worth more than larger ones. Therefore, bigger chests have sometimes been reduced in size to improve the value or saleability of a piece.

Pull out the drawers again, but this time concentrate on the construction of the sides. Both sides of each drawer should be put together in exactly the same way. So if one side of a drawer is, for example, made with dovetails and the other is nailed, or if the dovetails obviously don't match each other, then you can be pretty sure that the chest has been altered.

 Back boards

One of the first things I look at when buying an antique chest is the back. The boards that are fitted here should be rough and unfinished – and they tell you plenty. Again, you’re looking for signs of alteration.

Fresh, replaced boards are not good. Boards that have been cut down in width on the edge of the chest might indicate that it was once much wider. Back boards that look as if they’ve been there for generations, with old nails that have never been removed and with a nice, old, dusty look and smell are what you should be looking for.Colour and patination

A good colour and patination in any piece of antique furniture is vital for its value and desirability. Over-enthusiastically restored antique furniture which looks like new is truly horrible, and surely missing the point. Ancient marks and scars are great. Faded areas are fine also, as are old signs of old honest repairs. It takes years of experience to spot an antique piece with its original patination and colour, but if you want an idea of how an antique should look – visit the best and poshest antique shop you know and have a look at theirs!