How to tell when drawers are well made

There are easy ways to tell if drawers in a chest, desk, cabinet or cupboard are high quality tradition drawers.

Traditional handcrafted timber drawers are characterised by:

1. 1mm gap on the left/right/top
2. an even 1mm gap remains on all sides when you open and close the drawer
3. quality dovetail joinery is visible when you open the drawer (no nails or screws)
4. solid wood construction
5. no runners (no visible runners on the sides of drawers or under the drawers)