Unusual dovetail orientation?

[Jamie Buxton]

This pic is the back of a drawer. The tails are on the drawer back, and the pins are on the drawer side. The drawers are in a cabin cruiser built in the fifties in the San Francisco area. Anybody have an explanation for this orientation?

(This isn't the first time I've seen this. I've seen this approach on drawers in a dining-room built-in from nearly a hundred years ago, also in the SF area.)

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[Keith Pleas]

The back bottom of the sides gets the most wear. See the notch on the front behind the face? Lift up to clear the frame and you are sliding on the two back (worn!) corners.

[Dave Richards]

Not sure what Keith's comment has to do with the arrangement of the dovetails but I've got the dresser my father used when he was a child. It has the dovetails that way, too. I often wondered why.

[Jim Matthews]

Half blind sides?

Something smells machine made about this.
Production house furniture?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It'd keep the back of the drawer from spreading, may be a problem in something that moves, like a boat.

[roger wiegand]

I can't think why one orientation is more "correct" than the other, unless I'm missing something it seems as if both ways will work fine. Seems like whoever made it wanted the sides to not show the joinery-- but it's not like you see the back corner of a drawer much.

[Dave Richards]

The usual argument for the typical pins on the drawer back and tails on the side has been that drawers often get closed hard. The contents can slide to the back and over time, hammer the back of the drawer off if oriented as in the photo. That started to happen on several of the drawers in my father's dresser. I suppose it's a similar argument to why the drawer front gets the tails. If the front got the pins, you'd be pulling the joint apart when you open the drawer.

[Myk Rian]

The maker felt like doing it that way. That's all. Doesn't hurt anything.