Completed American Empire Tables

Below are some photos of the two American Empire "Pillar and Scroll" Tables I have been working on completed. The first table is the work table with drop leaves. If you look at previous posts you can see how different this piece looked when it arrived. Besides the repairs, the overall color of both tables lightened considerably due to being cleaned. In addition, the grain can be seen much more clearly.

The work table with the leaves up.

The work table with the drop leaves down.

The pedestal or center table .

More work on the two tables

Below are several additional photos of repairs made to the two Pillar and Scroll tables I am working on.

This is a photo of more veneer being glued down on the base of the two drawer stand. Gluing down more veneer.

The base needed to have some molding replaced. The two pieces in the photo below were used againThe new piece of molding ready to be cut to shape. The new molding in place. I drilled holes for the old nails to go through. they hold the piece together. The molding is sandwiched between the base and the pillar and glued in place.

The base of the two drawer stand being glued.

The top of the pedestal table once it has been sanded and stained.Starting to coat the top of the pedestal table in the bottom of the photo you can see more veneer being glued down.

The Cabinet Makers Assistant: Pillar and Scroll Design

Happy New Year! I have been working on two American Empire pieces which I have written several previous posts about. The first is a pedestal table and the second is a drop leaf two drawer stand. In researching these pieces I discovered that they are both part of a sub-category of American Empire which is called "Pillar and Scroll" furniture. This style of design came about during the later years of the American Empire movement and seems to have come into fashion around 1840. This coincided with the publication of "The Cabinet Makers' Assistant, Embracing the Most Modern Style of Cabinet Furniture" written by Baltimore Maryland architect and cabinetmaker John Hall in the same year. In doing my research I came across a reprint from 1944 of this publication and purchased it.

This publication of John Hall's design book in 1840 marked several firsts in the manufacture of furniture in America. First, This was the first design book published in the United States that promoted American designs. This being said, the "Pillar and Scroll" style was heavily influenced European styles but the particular construction methods and overall design of the pieces were something new.

Another first is that this marks a change in direction in furniture manufacture. As it became easier to produce furniture in a mass production setting with the use of mechanical tools like a band saw it became necessary to design furniture that could be constructed in this fashion with ease. The "Pillar and Scroll" style answered this calling. The forms were cut (using a band saw) out of a secondary wood like Pine or Poplar. The Mahogany veneers were then applied to the forms to produce an individual section. Usually there was no decorative carving and pieces could be put together rapidly and efficiently.

Below I have included some pages from the reprint I obtained. they deal with the design elements of the pieces I am working on.

The inside cover of the book.

This page shows different shapes used for the base of tables and the feet. It is interesting to note that Hall designed these pieces to have separate feet. In most of the examples I have seen of this furniture, the feet were cut from the same form as the base. The page also shows some pillar designs.

This page shows dimensional drawings of the base and also some more pillar designs.

Hall refers to these tables as Ladies' Work Tables. The piece I am working on is a mixture of the two. the top half resembles the drawing on the left while the bottom half the drawing on the right. One other point o interest. I notices that on the four bottom corners of the top section, the piece had been turned and then something sawed off. My guess is that they may have originally built the piece with legs and then decided to put on a base instead or that the piece had drop finials like the piece on the right which were later cut off.

Here are two designs for what hall calls Center Tables. The piece I am working on resembles the piece on the right.

American Empire Pedestal table (ca. 1840-50)

The history of this pedestal table was discussed in an earlier post. The main problems it has are loose veneer and some damage to the finish of the top. Because of the extent of the damage the finish had to be removed on the top. The finish on the base will be restored. Below are some photos of the removal of the finish and the repair to the veneer of the base.
The table as it came to me. The white marks are rings which have eaten through the finish.The removal of the finish from the top. The base has been masked off to prevent damage to the finish.The table wit the finish removed. The light color is mostly due to the angle of the photo.Repairs to the veneer on the base.

American Empire Two Drawer stand (ca.1840-50)

In a previous post I detailed the history of these pieces. This "Pillar and Scroll" table has severe damage due to a moving accident as well as veneer missing from age. The reason veneer loosens with age is that the veneer wood moves due to moisture at a different rate than the secondary wood it is glued to. in addition, the grain is often going in different directions so that the veneer pops off as the glue gives way. In this instance, the veneer was asked to bend around a foot that caused stress on the veneer and as the glue gave up the veneer chipped off. Below are several photos of the veneer damage and its repair. once the veneer is patched then the patches will be toned and blended to match the existing veneer. The photos following the veneer patches are of the top after the gouges had been repaired and sanded.
The veneer damage. Everything under the scribed line will be patched.The secondary wood cleaned and ready for the patch.The Veneer patch. After it has been glued it will be trimmed to the shape of the scroll foot.More veneer damage.The areas of this damage ready to be patched.The veneer patches after the gluing process.Gluing veneer patches in place.The Damage to the curved section of a scroll foot.Another scroll foot with veneer damage. Again, everything below the scribed line will be patched.Patching a scroll foot.The top after it has been repaired of the gouges and sanded. The natural color was a bit lighter then the leaves.The leaves after they have been repaired and sandedThe top stained to match the leaves.The top and the leaves ready for finish.

Two Pillar and Scroll Tables (ca. 1840- 1850)

I received two tables which I have started working on. Both are of the Pillar and Scroll style. The first is a two drawer drop leaf stand and the second is a pedestal table. I thought that before jumping into the repair aspect of these pieces that I would write a bit about their history.

Most of the dates that and specific information that I am going to relate comes from an article I found online concerning this furniture. If you are interested you can follow the link below to the article:

http://www.buffaloah.com/f/fstyles/lateclass/lateclass.html

for all of the time that I have been a cabinetmaker I have referred to these pieces as American Empire. Recently while researching another piece I came across this term of "Pillar and Scroll".

The "Pillar" referred to is the pillar that supports the top of the table while the "Scroll" referred to is the scroll patten used to terminate the feet on many of these pieces. While many pieces have these features, the key characteristic is the use of tight grained crotch Mahogany veneer to create repeating patterns that decorate the piece. This is usually the sole means of decoration

on a piece.

The reason for this type of construction is that by the 1840's furniture manufacture had moved into a quasi mass production setting for the first time. While the joinery was still done by hand, the sawing of the wood and veneers was starting to be done by with the help of machines. The curvilinear designs for these pieces utilised the band saw to cut the initial shapes out of a secondary wood, usually pine or poplar. These shapes were cut from large stacked blanks or assembled from hollow forms. The shapes, once cut and sanded were veneered. The result was decoration which was relatively easy to produce and repeat. It was also inexpensive to produce. Only in the higher end pieces do you find carving for ornamentation. Turnings were sometimes used as well for ornamentation but overall it was the simplified veneer decoration which dominated this style.

While I use the term pillar and scroll the proper categorisation of these pieces would be Late Empire or Late Classical. I like the use of Pillar and Scroll because it properly identifies these pieces. This being said, these pieces have design elements taken from the American Empire movement in furniture and fall within this category.

The drop leaf table as it came to me was severely damaged by movers and was disassembled and badly gouged on the top. The Pedestal table was in better condition and but needed veneer work done as well as having he top refinished. below are some photos of the pieces as they came to me I will follow this up by individual posts concerning the repairs.

The drop leaf two drawer standDamage to the top of the stand.A close up of the damage.The Pedestal table.Damage to the top of the pedestal table.