Eastlake Bedroom Set (ca.1880) Part 2

I have finished the Eastlake bedroom set I have been working on and have posted several photos of the chest with mirror, The Washstand, and the Bed below. The removal of the old finish and application of a new shellac finish really brought out the natural beauty of the walnut, especially the burled veneer. The chest and mirror frame have tops made from Tennessee marble which is actually a stone (not a true marble) found and quarried in east Tennessee. The pinkish hue of the stone really complements the walnut as you can see below.

I have also included some photos of the Victorian side chair I was working on with a new cane seat. This chair went to the same customer as the Eastlake bedroom set, so I have included it here.

Before showing photos of the pieces I wanted to include a close up shot of one of the locks. The lock has a very small stamp on it showing a patent date of 1870. I believe these pieces to be made around 1880, but this is definitive proof that they were made post 1870. The image is upside down unfortunately but the date can still be seen.


And now, the photos!

The Chair



The Bed


The Washstand



The three drawer chest with mirror

Mid- Victorian American Mahogany Mirror (ca. 1850)

Recently I restored a Mahogany mirror frame dating to the mid 19th century. The eliptical shaped mirror is set in a carved stand which would be set on top of a chest of drawers. It is possible that this mirror could date a little earlier since Mahogany had fallen out of use by the Victorian cabinetmakers in favor of Walnut at this time. In addition, the stores of Cuban and Honduran Mahogany were heavily depleted through constant harvesting in previous decades. The reason I dated this piece when I did was that the carving was very reminiscent of Mid-Victorian furniture.

At first, I thought this piece might be English, however closer inspection uncovered that this piece is definitely American. American Cherry was used as a secondary wood to make the basic structure of the mirror frame and stand. 1/2 inch pieces of Mahogany were then laid over the Cherry frame and carved down. In addition, the backing for the mirror frame was made from Tulip Poplar.

The mirror had some structural problems as well as some broken and missing carving. The other main concern with this piece was that it had been refinished in the past with a Lacquer finish. The problem with Lacquer is that over time it loses its transparency and also takes on a yellow haze, giving the Mahogany frame the appearance of Walnut! Lacquer is also a very static finish and lacks the elasticity of a French Polish, so as the wood moves beneath the finish, tiny fissures appear in the finish and can cause problems when cleaning products are used, and generally looks weathered. With all of this in mind the customer and I decided to remove the finish from the mirror and let the beauty of the Mahogany shine through a nice French Polish.

I didn't get a good "before" photo of the piece, but below are some photos of the mirror and frame and the stand as they came to me disassembled.


Here is a close-up photo of the Lacquer finish. If you look closely you can see a darker area where the finish had come off. This is the natural color of the Mahogany. the yellowish hue is a result of the Lacquer breaking down.
After the finish was removed, I set about repairing the frame. Here is a photo of the joinery of the frame being glued in place.
This photo is a close-up of the photo above. Sometimes you have to be creative with your clamping. In this case I used two wooden clamps as something for the other clamps to grab a hold of. The blue clamps in the photo then drew the joint together.
The piece in the photos below is a decorative carving which is attached to the mirror frame at the top. It is actually made up of several different pieces of wood which were glued together. I guess the reason for making it out of multiple pieces was to make the carving easier. At any rate, it had broken into many pieces and had also lost portions of the carving.
The next two photos show the carving with the finish removed and being repaired.

As stated before, the carving was missing two sections, one on each end. Below are some photos of the carving with the missing section, the patches put in place, and the patches carved down. The new carvings were later stained to match the color of the mirror.





This photo shows a simple repair to the mirror backing.
The next two shots are of the mirror frame, stand, and carving during the finishing process. All of the pieces were selectively stained to match the darkest portion of the mirror frame.

These last two photos show the mirror completed and re-assembled. It was nice that this frame also contained the original glass, and that it was in such nice shape. Overall this is a nice example of Mid-Victorian Furniture.

Three Completed Chippendale Style Mirrors (20th Century)

Below are some photos of the Chippendale style mirrors I was working on completed. The Mahogany and Cherry mirrors were each cleaned and waxed, while the Tiger Stripe Maple mirror had it's finish removed and was refinished with French Polish. A thin stain was added to even out the color.

First, the Mahogany Mirror (all mirrors of seen from side views and directly).


The Cherry Mirror.

And the Tiger Stripe Maple Mirror.

Three Chippendale style Mirrors (20th Century)

Recently I started working on three reproduction Chippendale mirrors, all made in the Twentieth century. The Chippendale mirror was first introduced around 1760 in England. it has characteristic scroll work which decorated the sides, top and bottom of the mirror frame. The three that are discussed in this post are all different and required different repairs. The first is a Chippendale mirror made of Mahogany by the Suter's Furniture Company of Harrisonburg, Va. To get a history of this company follow this link:

http://suters.com/our-story.aspx

This mirror is still being made today and depending on the size can list anywhere from $800.00 to $1055.00. Here is a link to the page concerning the mirrors:

http://suters.com/mirrors.aspx

below is a photo of the mirror as it came to me:
Below is a photo of the brand for the mirror displaying the company name.

Overall this mirror is in good shape. the upper left corner had a piece of scroll work that was broken off and the top was loose, so I made the repairs to the mirror as seen in the photo below. I will post a photo of the mirror once the repairs are touched up.
The second Chippendale Mirror had no maker attached to it but was made of Cherry, so it was probably an American piece. Below is a photo of this mirror.
The only damage to this mirror was a small section of the scroll work which had broken off. Below is a photo of the repair using a special three way clamp. Again I will be posting a completed photo of the mirror once it is done.
The third mirror is the oldest and has received the most work. It is a Chippendale Mirror made from Tiger Stripe Maple. It is also the oldest and probably dates to the 1930's. As was the trend of the times, the manufacturer wanted tins mirror to have an old look and to achieve this stained the entire mirror with a muddy brown stain in the finish that pretty much hid the beautiful grain of the wood below. The customer and I decided to remove this finish and expose the wood beneath. The mirror frame also had a crack in the top of the scroll work that required a butterfly patch. The photos below detail the restoration of this mirror. The first photo is of the mirror as it came to me. I have removed the glass to protect it while the work was being done.
Below is a photo of the finish being removed. It was great to see this beautiful wood come out from behind the brown stain!
Here is a photo of the frame with the finish removed.
This is a photo of the crack in the scroll work as seen from the back of the frame.
I cut a small butterfly patch out of tiger Stripe maple to bridge the crack. here is the patch.
The patch was scribed with an Xacto blade and the area was cut out to receive the patch. The patch was then glued in place.
Here is the patch after it was glued in place. you can see how the narrowest part of the patch is lined up with the crack. Not only does this stabilize the crack, but it also keeps the wood from expanding and contracting.
The next step was to pare down the patch until it was flush with the rest of the wood.It was then lightly sanded.
Here is the patch after it has been touched-up.
this photo shows the frame in the finishing process.
Here is a close up of the top showing the beauty of the Tiger Stripe Maple. Once this is complete I will post some more photos.