Walnut Candle Stand (ca. 1970)

This post concerns a candle stand made from Walnut. The stand was made around 1970 I am guessing and was made by hand. This is the kind of piece that reminds me of something that would have been made by a craftsman in his backyard shop. It was very simple in its construction and the simplicity gives it elegance.

The entire piece was made from Walnut and the only structural damage to it was that the top and base had loosened a bit. The top also had a lot of water damage so I decided to remove the finish from the top. The base had a finish that was restorable so I left it in place. The photos below show the process.

Here are two pictures of the table when it entered my shop. The second photo shows a detail of the water damage to the top surface.

I removed the top in order to strip the old finish off. while this was going on I cleaned the finish on the base and glued it up. Here is a photo of the base clamped while the glue was drying.
This photo shows the top reattached and sanded. The top was lightly stained to match the base and then coated to build up the finish.
These last three photos show the table completed. It really looks nice up against the green background of the shop!

New England Federal Candlestand (1810-`1825) Part 2

Here are a few photos of the candlestand I have been working on. When I left off, I had completed all of the repairs to the table, including some major repairs to the pedestal where one leg is dovetailed in. The piece had been stained at one time and the stain proved to be hard to remove. In order to even the piece out, I stained it again. Most likely, this piece would have been stained originally anyway, and to remove all of the stain from the piece would mean a lot of invasive sanding. The other benefit of staining was that it toned up my repairs so well, that I decided to leave them natural and not try to hide them with touch-up powders. Here is a photo of the table after it was stained.
The next few photos show the table after the restoration was completed. the new finish is shellac based with a final coat of paste wax. The finish was applied using a French Polish method. Most of the scratches and dings were left in place to retain the piece's sense of authenticity and originality.

New England Federal Candlestand (1810-`1825) Part 1

One of the pieces I am currently working on is a Candlestand made in Maine during the Federal Period sometime between 1810 and 1825. Before going on to explain the history of the piece, I feel that I should first write a few lines concerning the design of this piece.

The top is square and has a serpentine perimeter that is canted on the corners. The underside of the top is beveled to give the top an appearance of being thinner than it is. The top is fixed to the base with a tapered batten that is beveled and attached to the base with a wedged mortise joint. The column of the base is turned and the vasiform pedestal is beaded, this action being performed on the lathe during the original manufacture. the pedestal is connected to the legs using dovetail joinery. The legs are in a spider shape typical of the Federal period and terminate in a spade foot. With all of these details assembled, the result is a wonderful and unique table.

The piece was handed down through many generations to its current owner, and was reported to have been made in Maine. There is a very similar piece that is included in the Wintherthur collection and is listed as number 381 in the book "American Furniture: the Federal Period" ByCharles F. Montgomery. The piece in the book is given similar dates and under description notes that it was probably made in a rural area in New England. I would have to agree with this statement and the use of Maple and Birch (both northern domestic woods) would back this rural provenance up.

The piece was in really rough shape when it came into my shop. The main problem was that joinery for the legs had broken and been poorly repaired in the past. The top was also loose and the table had been stained red at some point. I do not think that this was done originally, despite the fact that many of these tables were stained red, because the under side of the table was not stained and showed evidence of being stripped at some previous time. Below is a photo of the underside of the table.

The top itself had some water damage, and many knife scratches that had gone deep into the surface. To try to remove would take a great deal of sanding and the scratches lend to the authenticity and history of the piece, so the customer and I decided to leave them and lightly sand the top. Here is a photo of the water damage to the top.
The wedged mortise and tenon joinery had loosened over time and someone had tried to repair this with a hot glue gun. This was an inappropriate glue to use and an ineffective repair. The photo below shows this.
The same glue was used to repair the bottom where the legs meet the pedestal. Missing portions of the joinery were replaced with wood putty, resulting in a messy and once again ineffective repair.The next three photos show this work.




After the finish had been removed, the next step was to dismantle the table and remove the prior repairs, so that I could see what I had to work with. the base of the pedestal was severly damaged and roughly 1/4 of it was missing. This needed to be patched with real wood to create a strong joint. The rest of the post shows this process. The next three photos show the damaged area in detail.


I Built a jig that would allow a router to move over the top of the broken area and remove some of the surface so that I could have a flat surface to glue my patch onto. This jig was made from scrap lumber and can be seen below with the pedestal clamped in place.
This detail photo shows the affected area before it was routed flat.
This photo shows the affected area after it was routed flat. I hit a few nails, but the blade seemed to be no worse for the wear! You can see that in the turned section to the right there is an additional area that needed to be repaired. That was dealt with the same way and can be seen in the following photo.

Now that I had a flat surface, I could clamp new wood to the base. I used reclaimed maple flooring to make my patches. They can be seen being glued in place below.
Here is a photo of the patches after they were glued in place and ready to carve.
The pedestal would have originally been turned on a lathe, but it would be very hard to center it again to return the patches, in addition to the fact that the batten on the top was not removable. Instead of turning the patch, I carved it by hand. Below is a photo of the patches carved down to a roughly cylindrical shape.
It is hard to see, but in the next photo the patch is scribed where the carved lines will be put in.
Here is the patch carved and ready for sanding
After the patch was carved, I needed to cut the dovetail mortise in the pedestal to receive the leg. to get the placement of this just right, I measured the diameter of the pedestal (9") and divided it by three (3"). This gave me the location to cut my dovetail. To make the process go a little faster. I used my router to create a flat shoulder for the leg and also to cut the dovetail mortise. I then fit it to the legs dovetail by hand and glued the leg in place.
Below is a detail photo of the patches before they were stained and with the legs put in place. The photo at the beginning of this post shows the repaired table standing on its own three feet! The next post will show the finish work and the completed table.

American Chippendale Mahogany Candlestand (ca.1760- 1780) Part 2

Here are a few photos of the candlestand I was working on completed. the original finish was basically cleaned and the repaired areas touched-up and sealed with French Polish. With the exception of the repair to the top, the old repairs were left visible to attest to the age and history of the piece. If you missed the first post on this piece here is a link to that page:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/09/american-chippendale-mahogany.html

Below are photos from different angles and one with the top of the table tilted upright.

American Chippendale Mahogany Candlestand (ca. 1760-1780)

Probably my favorite style of furniture is the tripod table. Tripod bases were used in tea tables, candlestands, fire screens, and sometimes in dumbwaiters during the 18th and early 19th century. The idea of the tripod base is that on an uneven floor it can always find solid footing whereas a table with four legs will wobble. This is especially important when dealing with flames from a candle or lamp, or with tea.

The first use of this form was seen in Holland in the mid-17th century and towards the end of that century examples of tables using a tripod base were found in England. As the 18th century progressed this form came into real fashion in England and by the mid-18th century was abundant with the rise of the upper middle class. The use of the tea table also corresponded with the rise of tea drinking in England and all of the ceremony that accompanied it. In America, which followed the trends of England and Europe, many fine examples of all of the aforementioned tables etc. could be found.

There are several variations on this general form. One of which is the tilt top table. The idea behind this is that the top is hinged by its battons to the pedistal so that the top can flip up for easy storage. The top is held down by a brass "snap" or catch or by a wooden turn buckle in cruder examples. In fact, one name for these tables in the 18th century was a snap table. One further innovation was the incorporation of a "birdcage" which was a section of the table between the pedestal and the top which allowed the top to spin like a Lazy Susan. This allowed women to spin the top during tea rather than get up to serve tea which would be difficult with the large dresses that were the fashion of the time.

I recently received a candlestand from a customer who wanted it to be restored. The candlestand came from a collection of furniture owned by a Dr. C Ray Franklin who was a Kentucky born descendant of Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Franklin was a collector of fine furniture in the early to mid 20th century and acquired an impressive collection f 18th and 19th century American furniture. This collection was auctioned off on Saturday, October 13th, 1984 by Christie's auction house in New York City. A hardbound auction book was published and the table we are concerned with was included in the book. Here is the cover of the book:


The table is described as coming from Massachusetts and is dated between 1760 and 1780. below is the photo of the table from the book followed by the description.

The description makes reference to repairs to the dish top and to the pedestal. All of these repairs were still visible when I received the table. The repairs to the base were quite old and involved several patches. The repair to the dish top was more recent and very poorly executed. I was hired to remedy this problem and to restore the piece while being sensitive to its history. Below is a photo of the table as it came to me.
Here is a close up of the repair to the dish top. It is called a "dish top" because it was turned on a lathe and the perimeter was turned into a decorative molding while the center was dished out to a lower depth.
Luckily, The repair was reversible and with a little effort I was able to separate the repaired pieces from the top. I then cleaned the old glue off of the pieces and fit them to the top so that the pieces lay flush with the top. Once this was accomplished the pieces were glued in place.Below is a photo of the pieces being glued in place.
While the pedestal had been repaired, the repairs were old and the glue had lost it's bond. The damage was quite significant and I wanted to add strength to the joinery without the use of modern glues(which would have been inappropriate). The answer was to create a "Spider" which is a metal piece that is formed to the underside of the pedestal which connects the pedestal to the legs. This is an authentic repair and Spiders can be found on many 18th century tripod tables. I have detailed the process of the fabrication and application of the spider as well as the repairs to the base below.

Here is a photo of the base of the pedestal and the damaged areas.
Here are the two legs that were removed in the first photo.
the first step was to clean the old glue and glue the base back together. This can be seen in the following two photos.

After the glue had dried, I fashioned a metal spider out of sheet metal that had some rusty spots. First the metal was cut to shape.
The metal was then darkened using Selenious Acid.
The last step was to fasten the spider to the legs using screws I had some nice old screws that fit the bill, so I used them.
This last photo shows the table dismantled during the restoration of the finish. I will post some photos of the completed piece in a few days.