Some Recently Completed Pieces

19th Century English Cherry Dressing Table

I have developed a bit of a backlog of photos of completed work over the past couple of months. In an effort to catch up I am showcasing some of the more interesting pieces that have come through the shop recently. Below I will describe the pieces and the work we did to them.

1. English Lath Back Windsor Chair

 This was one of my favorite chairs to ever come through the shop. It is a Lath Back Windsor made from various woods including beech and elm. It was made sometime in the middle of the 19th century. 

These chairs are great, they have great form and are very comfortable. This one had loosened up so I glued the loose joinery. The wear on the chair was wonderful, especially on the arms, so we simply cleaned and waxed the finish.

2. Four Ladderback Chairs
 
These chairs are pretty run of the mill, and were probably made around 50 years ago. I chose these to showcase the great job my caner did on the rush seats! Beyond the seats, I glued the loose joinery, and cleaned and waxed the finish.

3. Parquet Table with Draw Leaves
I have written about draw leaf table before on this blog. All of the examples that come through the shop seem to be from the early part of the 20th century. This one was made form European walnut and beech. It had a French country style, and was probably made in France or possibly another country on the European continent. This table was in pretty rough shape, so we removed the finish and refinished it with a French Polish finish.
  

 4. Walnut Breadboard End Table 
This table came from Switzerland and was made from old boards of European walnut. That being said, it was made fairly recently. I liked this table a lot because it reminded me of the first dining table I made, which was also of walnut. The finish was in bad shape, so we refinished this with a French Polish finish.
 

 5. English Cherry Dressing Table
This was a sweet little table, made from European cherry in the early part of the 19th century. Despite the cabinetmakers attempts to use good straight grained wood, the back legs had warped severely! Because it was stable and there is no real way to fix this, I left them as is. This piece was refinished with a French Polish finish.

6. Walnut Drop Leaf Table
This table had some beautiful walnut veneer, as seen in the photo below. It was made in the 1930s and I refinished it with a French Polish and found a new walnut knob for the drawer.

7. Reproduction John Shaw Four Drawer Chest
This chest was a lovely reproduction of  a chest made by John Shaw (1745- 1829), a cabinet maker from Annapolis, Maryland. The reproduction was made by Biggs Furniture of Richmond, Virginia. The chest, like the original, had beautiful crotch mahogany on the drawer fronts. Quite a lovely piece, reproduction or not!

8. Mahogany Display Stand
 
This stand had a lot of work put into it. The top was edged with inlayed banding, some of which was missing and we had to recreate. We also glued the loose joinery, replaced some of the glass, covered the bottom with felt, and refinished the entire case.
  

 

 

I am sure I have more photos like these so I will probably be putting together another post soon of pieces that were recently restored.

Mahogany Chest on Chest (ca.1790)

The Completed Chest

The chest on chest or double chest is, as the name states, a chest stacked on a second chest. Today the form is seen in one piece construction but originally it would have been composed of two separate chests. The bottom chest is slightly larger in most forms and has molding attached to the top which hides the joint where the top is stacked. The upper chest is capped with a molded pediment that gives a bit of lift and completion to the form. 

The chest I recently worked on dates to the fourth quarter of the 18th century. Three details point towards this time period. The first is the use of a straight bracket foot on the bottom, which appears in case pieces during that period. The second indication is the orientation of the drawer bottoms from left to right, instead of front to back. This orientation was a development of the second half of the 18th century and the change was made so that the wood could expand and contract easier and less cracking would occur due to humidity changes. The third indication of age is the use of brass cased locks in the drawers. All of the locks are present in this piece and appear to be original. The use of brass cases over iron cases originated during this period. Beyond the dating of the chest I can tell by the construction methods and the woods used that this chest on chest was produced in England.

The piece as it came to me was in need of a new finish. The existing finish was modern and had begun to deteriorate. There were also several routine repairs one would expect to see in an 18th century piece of furniture. Below are a few photos of the piece during the repair process followed by two photos of the completed chest on chest.

These first few photos show the chest on chest as it was when it came into the shop.

 

This photo of the side of the top shows the beautiful grain of the veneered sides of the chest and also a bit of missing astragal molding that transitions the pediment to the case side.

These next two photos show the chest with the finish removed.

The boards that cover the joinery where the drawer dividers attach to the case sides were loose. This is due to shrinkage of the case sides. The clamps on the left and right sides of the case are holding these covers in place while the glue dries, as seen in the two photos below.

One side of the upper chest had a significant crack running from top to bottom. This again was due to wood movement. A long tapered wedge was glued in the crack, as seen in the photo below. The wedge was left proud while the glue dried, and then pared flush to the side once the glue had set.

The opposite side of the chest had loose veneer where the side had warped. The deep clamps in the photos below are gluing this down. The replaced astragal molding is also being glued in place on the top of the case.

After the glue had set, the astragal molding was fine tuned and sanded. The patch is seen below just above the blue tape.

Many of the drawers were missing the cockbeading that frames the drawer faces. This was all replaced and any loose beading was glued in place. a replaced section is seen in the photo below.

The top of the upper chest had a crack in it which was repaired the same as the crack in the side mentioned above. The photos below show the wedge as it was refined. This first photo shows the wedge inserted and gluing in place.

Once the glue had dried, the wedge was pared flush to the top using a combination of a smoothing plane and a hand chisel.

the wedge was further leveled with scraping and sanding. It was later stained to match the color of the top.

This photo shows the top half of the chest after the repairs were made and the entire piece was sanded. The chest on chest was selectively stained to match the natural color of the wood on the drawer fronts.

One feature that this particular chest had was what is referred  to as a brushing slide. This is a board that sits directly above the long drawers in the bottom half of the case. It has two brass pulls that allow the user to pull the board out. The board would have originally been covered with a baize.

Contrary to what most people would assume, This panel was not meant to be used as writing surface, but the purpose was to have a surface to lay out clothes for brushing off, hence the name brushing slide.

The slide in this piece had warped and the felt that was on the piece was frayed and loose in many places. The existing felt can be seen in the photo below.

Once all of the felt and glue was removed, the surface was leveled with a jack plane, as seen in the photos below.

After the new finish was applied, it was masked and glue was applied to the wood sub surface, as seen below.

The new baize was then laid out and smoothed.

The next step was to define the edges of the slide and trim the excess baize from the slide.

The restored slide with new baize applied.

This last photo shows the brushing slide extended from the lower case.

These following photos show the restored chest on chest. The light was a little dark, so the color appears a little darker than it really is. The photo above shows the color a little better.

Felt Replacement

On the Secretary desk that I have been working on, the felt had been damaged badly over time and needed to be replaced. The first step was to remove the old felt and clean the surface area to prepare it for the new felt. I included photos of the cleaning process on an earlier post. Below are some photos of the process of installing the new felt on the writing surface. Typically, this is done with the aid of an assistant, but without extra help I used clamps to be my extra set of hands.

The photo below shows the writing surface cleaned and ready for the new felt to be attached.

This photo shows the writing surface with the finished areas masked off to prevent glue from getting on it.

This photo shows the felt being attached to the writing surface. The felt is clamped down at the far end and stretched with clamps at the nearer end to allow me to work the felt into place without creasing it.

Here you can see the felt fully attachged to the writing surface and the clamps removed.


This final photo shows the felt after the excess was trimmed and the masking was removed.