Queen Anne Walnut Sofa (ca. 1705)

I received an English sofa from the Queen Anne period recently that needed to have the joinery repaired and the wood work restored. The upholstery was in pretty good shape so no reupholstering was required. The Queen Anne period of furniture design lasted in England from around 1700-1725. The primary wood of choice for this period was Walnut with Oak being used as a secondary wood. The true end of the Queen Anne period in England came with the lifting of import taxes for Mahogany in 1733 which ushered in the use of Mahogany for the next 100 years.

When trying to date this sofa I found a nice comparable in a German book on English furniture entitled MOBEL UND RAUMKUNST IN ENGLAND VON 1680-1800. below is the photo of the settee in this case with the date of 1705 being attached to the piece.

There is certainly a range of time this sofa could have been made, but looking at the construction details of the Sofa compared to the Settee, I think they are pretty close in age. The only ornamental detail missing in the settee is the Cockle or Scallop shell which adorns the knees of the Cabriole legs of the Sofa. This ornamentation found it's first use in the Queen Anne period and was in use during the entire period. In fact, the shell carving on the knee is a key attribute to Queen Anne seating furniture.

One other design note is the use of the two rolls connected by a sweeping curve for the arms which made it's debut in the William and Mary period and continued on into Queen Anne. below is a photo detailing the arm.

Here is a photo of the Cabriole leg with the Cockle or Scallop shell carving on the knee.

I was asked to repair and install a broken stretcher that was broken during a move but as is usually the case found a lot more damage once I started to look into the piece. The sofa has been repaired several times throughout years and over all, all of the joinery on the bottom of the sofa had become loose and needed to be re glued. Below are some photos of he repair followed by the restoration of the finish.


A fracture in one of the back legs that came apart during the repair.

One of the legs removed from the sofa with the loosened returns sitting beside it.

All of the joinery on this leg had been repaired, but had come loose again.Some broken joinery that was repaired with dowels.

The broken stretcher was repaired by drilling a dowel through the broken section and the stretcher and inserting an oak dowel. Oak is used throughout the piece and I feel like it is a stronger wood for the joinery, so I used it.

When I saw this, I thought that maybe I was looking at a really good fake! the lines running horizontally on the back side of this leg were created by a Band Saw which was not used in furniture making until the 19th Century. What this actually is is a patch on the back side of this leg.The color difference in the wood on the bottom half of the photo is the new Walnut that was glued to the old to make the repair above.

Here is a photo of the legs and stretchers removed from the sofa. Once the glue was cleaned off, the sofa was put back together.

Here is a photo of the sofa being glued up using band clamps and pipe clamps.

A detail of the gluing shows the return blocks being attached to the leg in this photo

The last three photos show the restoration of the finish. The upholstery has been taped off with blue masking tape to protect it from finish. I will post photos of the completed sofa in my next entry.

Walnut Rocker with Cane Seat and Back (ca. 1860)

Below are some photos of the repairs I made to a nice 19th century American rocking chair. The chair dates to around 1860 and is made entirely from walnut. The back stretcher for the seat frame had developed a break and the arms were also loose.I repaired the break and replaced the glue blocks for the seat frame which were a little small. these glue blocks were not original to the piece, but were a good repair to stabilize the seat frame. After the repairs were made I cleaned and waxed the finish.

The rocking chair as it came to me.The break in the back of the seat frame.Repairing the seat frame after the new glue blocks were installed.Gluing the arms of the chair.The last two photos are of the chair after it was cleaned and waxed.

The Story of Shellac

Below is a pretty comprehensive look at Shellac and it's manufacture written in another blog entitled "The Full Chisel Blog by Stephen Shepherd. The also used to use Shellac for the manufacture of 78 rpm records. This is the principal finish I use in my Restoration work. I really appreciate that this is a natural, renewable substance. Also non toxic, It is truly the "greenest" of finishes.

-John Mark Power


Shellac, one of the top three finishes
from Full Chisel Blog by Stephen Shepherd

Shellac is a particularly unusual finish with ancient origins. First used centuries ago, its initial use was as a dye stuff but then when mixed with alcohol made a fine spirit finish. Used as a substitute for real oriental lacquer, it is also a thermoplastic cement used to hold stones while grinding or for stopping, an excellent finish called French polish is extremely high gloss, the first hair spray and a food grade called ‘confectioner’s glaze’ makes candy and pastries shiny.
Lac Bug
During the 17th century in Europe it became a popular finish and the first books on its use were published. It was all imported from the east, mostly India, it is still being produced as it has been for millennia. There have been attempts to synthesize shellac but to no avail. A small [the size of an apple seed] female insect Lacca Lucifera, it flies to a fig or acacia tree, finds a suitable branch and settles in. A small needle like mouth pierces the branch of the tree and sucks out sap. It then exudes [read poops] a red sticky substance and gets stuck, where it sits and sucks and poops. At the end of the cycle, the bug lays what is reportedly a thousand eggs and dies. The youngsters hatch, dine on their dead mother then bore their way through the shellac and move on to another tree. Trees are given a few years in between the infestation to allow the trees to recuperate.
At this point the shellac is harvested by cutting of the small branches and scraping away all of the residue, mostly shellac but with some twig parts and bug parts. Stick-lac is the crudest [read unrefined] form of shellac followed by seed-lac (no stick, but still small woody parts). It is then placed in cheesecloth bags and heated over a fire until it becomes slightly liquid, the bag is twisted and the shellac is squeezed out filtering out the bug parts and twigs. It is formed into round drops called button-lac and sold in that form. Further processing by heating the shellac and pouring it over a large pottery cylinder shaped jar, then warmed in front of a fire and stretched into large thin sheets, which is broken up to make flake shellac. It can also be bleached to make a lighter colored shellac called blond.
De-waxing shellac is a popular idea at the moment and it is suggested that the naturally occurring wax interferes with modern finishes. It doesn’t seem to interfere with traditional finishes and there is little evidence that this was done traditionally. I personally think this is a waste of time and shellac, the best parts are what settle out, I always mix it up before use. I think it also contributes to a French polish finish, a simple method of applying shellac with a pad and produces an extremely high shine.
If you don’t mix up your own, which is very easy, you can also buy commercially available shellac in a can, it comes in orange or white [bleached] and is a fine finish providing it is thinned at least 50% with alcohol. Alcohol is the only solvent for shellac, although it will melt at high temperature. There is a standard called X pound cut, indicating the [X] number of pounds of shellac per gallon of alcohol. Three pound cut being common, it is way too thick to use and must be thinned. Several thinner coats are much better than one thick coat. I have no idea of the pound cut of the shellac I use but I imagine it is around a quarter pound cut, meaning one quarter pound of shellac to one gallon of alcohol and this works fine for me.
Shellac is reversible, so it is great for restoration work, it is all natural and comes from a renewable resource and is non toxic, although the denatured alcohol is, I use pure straight grain alcohol, just in case. It is easy to use and if you mess up it can be removed. Pigments can be added to the shellac to make a glaze and I even make fast drying paint by adding more pigments. Shellac is a great finish for woodworking and among the top three woodworking finishes.

Victorian Walnut Side Chair (1860-1880)

the chair below dates from the mid to late Victorian era and probably fits into the Renaissance revival and Eastlake periods. The overall design was one that was used throughout this time. Later examples (some of which can be seen in earlier posts) have burled Walnut veneer applied to the back rails. this example had a hand carved floral motif on the back stretchers, uprights, and demi-arms. The turning below the seat is finely made and has more definition than most chairs if this type. the overall material used for the chair is Walnut with the exception of the side stretchers being turned from Hickory. The Joinery is all doweled with the exception of the stretchers forming the back if the chair, which have mortise and tenon joinery.
The chair was loose throughout and needed some finish work, but the main repair was that the seat had broken where the front legs mortise into the seat. The chair and the break can be seen below.(thanks to the customer for supplying the first two photos!)This photo shows a close up of the break .The break was right where the Tenon for the leg and the doweling joining the seat together converged. As seen in the photo, there wasn't much room left for wood! Once the seat was removed I noticed the seat frame had been patched before using pine instead of Walnut. All of the patches were crudely done and were where the separate seat sections joined together. they were also loose so I removed them and patched them with Walnut.Here is a photo of the seat frame being glued and the patches being put in place.Here is a photo of the chair dismantled and different cracks being glued in the legs.Here is a photo of the chair being reassembled. I will post more photos of the restoration of the finish in future posts

New England Queen Anne Side Chair (1715-1740)

Below are some photos of a chair I have been working on. The chair is a Queen Anne side chair from New England. It dates to somewhere between 1715 and 1740. These chairs, often called "Splat Back" chairs or "Fiddle Back" chairs were made in the southern sections of New England during the first half of the 18th century. The form evolved from an earlier style called "Bannister Backs" which would have three or four uprights in the back cut to resemble the silhouettes of turned columns. The single vasiform splat probably came from English pieces which in turn got the idea from Chinese influences. These chairs were made with straight backs that were set at an angle for comfort. Later Queen Anne side chairs would have a curved splat that would accommodate the back of the seated person.
The turnings are largely a holdover form the earlier William and Mary chairs, most notably the modified ball and ring motif on the front stretcher. At first, I thought that there was some later Chippendale influence in the crest rail design with the upturned wings, but I have found several examples like this one which have the same design all firmly established in the American Queen Anne period.

The legs, splat, and shoe of the chair are made from Maple, the splat and shoe being made from tiger stripe or "Fiddle Back" Maple (the wood used for the back and sides of violins is quarter sawn Tiger Stripe Maple). This probably added to the nick name of " Fiddle Back" chairs, but the main reason for the name is the shape of the back splat loosely resembling that of a violin.
The stretchers are made of Hickory and the crest rail is made from a porous wood resembling Walnut but lighter in color. It could be a light piece of Walnut or perhaps Butternut or even Birch.

One other notable characteristic of this chair is the height of the shoe above the seat. This is seen in most forms of this chair and again is a carry over from the earlier "Bannister Back" chairs. I read that most of these chairs would have been painted originally, but I saw no evidence of this on this chair. The finish is shellac based and as been with the chair for some time. It is a completely restorable finish.

Over all the chair is in pretty good shape considering the age. It was a little loose and needed a new seat. The original seats for most of the chairs were rush and not splint so replacing the seat does not affect the value. Below are some photos of the chair and the repairs done to it.
The Chair as it came to me.Here is a side view showing the back sloping rake which made the chair more comfortable. Here is a photo of the back of the shoe where an old repair of a nail was made. this may have worked for a time, but pressure on the shoe has opened up the break again.After the seat was removed, I found that one of the Hickory stretchers for the seat was badly cracked. Luckily it could be repaired and did not need to be replaced. The crest rail was attached with pinned mortise and tenon joinery. This is the only place that the chair was pinned. On the left side (facing) the pin had fallen out, so I carved a replacement.Here is a photo of the chair being tightened (using appropriate hide glue) and all of the above repairs being made. In a future entry I will show the restoration of the finish.

Walnut Eastlake Cylinder Secretary Desk (ca. 1880)

Above is a photo of an Eastlake cylinder secretary desk that I recently restored. The piece dates to around 1880 and most likely comes from the south east United States. The case is Walnut with Walnut burl veneer accents and the secondary wood is poplar. the drawer joinery is a Knapp joint which puts the manufacture of the piece between 1871 and 1900. Below is a photo of the Knapp joint found on the side of the drawer.

To read more about the Knapp joint follow this link:

http://http//johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/knapp-joint.html

The finish on the piece was in pretty good shape but the case had many problems which the owner wanted to be addressed. The major problems were the drawer runners being broken and the cylinder joinery being loose and not working properly. My task was to get the piece to function well and to clean and wax the finish. Below are some photos of this work.

The next two photos show patching missing sections of the cylinder desk section of the piece.

This photo shows the cylinder section being glued up.The next two photos show the cylinder door being glued and missing blocking being replaced on the cylinder section.

This photo shows the letter compartment section being glued up.In this photo you can see three of the drawer sides being glued up at once. Each side was broken above where the bottom slides in place. When this happens, the drawer needs to be disassembled and the broken portion cut off. after this is done the new wood is added and afterwards cut to receive the dovetails and the drawer bottom. This photo shows runner materiel being added to the drawers.Here are two drawers being re-assembled.In this photo the bottom section is being tightened.This photo shows molding being glued in place on the bottom of the top section. this molding is the only part which is not original. Originally, the top section was glued to the cylinder section. The molding was probably added to the top section to add some height and to make it a separate unit from the middle.This photo shows a loose carving which was latter glued in place.Here is a photo of the hardware. the pull on the left is the way it came and the one on the right is seen after polishing.Here are two photos of the completed desk. the first shows it with the lid open.