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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Elizabethan Revivial Oak Dining Table (ca. 1920)

I recently received an Oak dining room table in my shop that was made around 1920, probably in England.It is similar to an earlier table I worked on, which can be seen in the link below:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/12/quarter-sawn-oak-draw-leaf-diningtable.html

Both tables are made in the style of 17th century Oak English Furniture and are dubbed "Elizabethan Revival" by those who name furniture periods. This table was a good deal larger than the table I linked to above and would qualify as a dining table, due to it's size. Like the previous table, the top had quartersawn Oak veneer glued to a substrate which was framed with solid Oak ends that were mitered at the corners. The top had two draw leaves which pulled out from either side and would move into the proper position to extend the table by about four feet.

Over all, the condition of the table was pretty good and It showed signs of being worked on in the past, the finish had definitely been replaced at some point which was evident due to the presence of stripper marks on the underside of the table. The main issue was a worn finish on the top and some missing and loose veneer. The base also had some large cracks that needed to be filled. The finish on the  apron and the base was nice enough to restore, so the surfaces I refinished were the top and the draw leaves. Below are some photos of the process.

Here is a photo of the top of the table as it came to me,
....and here is the base,
...and the leaves.

After the finish was removed from the top, the first order of business was to glue down all of the loose veneer and to patch the missing veneer. Most of this was along the edge of the veneered surface, so I was just able to get my clamps to reach in enough to clamp down the veneer. The photo below shows the veneer being glued down.
This photo shows the draw leaves after the finish had been removed.
After the glue for the veneer had dried overnight I removed the clamps and sanded the surface smooth. The photo below shows the Oak veneer patches I put in one of the corners before I sanded the entire surface.
After the top was sanded, the next step was to add some color to the top to match the base. Here is a photo of the top after it was stained. I think there may be a coat or two of  shellac on the surface at this point.

The finish on the base was cleaned with mineral spirits, and then alcohol. I then applied finish to the old finish to clean it up. This photo was taken during the cleaning process.

These last four photos show the table completed with a French polish shellac finish. The very last photo shows the quartersawn Oak veneer well.




3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. I have a table that appears the same and the chairs are marked Grand Rapids, Mich.

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  3. Good read, This blog has provided the helpful data to us, continue the good work.

    ReplyDelete