Oak Bedroom Set (ca 1900)

This post concerns an Oak bedroom set that was restored shortly before Thanksgiving. The set was made around 1900 and consisted of a washstand, a dresser with an attached mirror, and a full size bed. The pieces had lines consistent with the decoration used in mass produced American Eastlake style furniture, and it is interesting to compare the set to another set I restored earlier this year. Here is a link to the first set:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/10/eastlake-bedroom-set-ca1880-part-2.html

The sets are different in several regards. First, the set I restored earlier was made 20 years earlier. The wood that was in vogue at that time was Walnut. By the turn of the century, factories had moved onto Oak and this period is often referred to as the Golden Oak period. Another difference is that the Oak set employs the use of a machined dovetail in the drawer construction. This is how I was able to date the pieces. The earlier set had a pseudo machined dovetail which is called a Knapp joint. I have written extensively about that joint and a search on this blog will provide you with more information about it.

Other differences between the two sets are that the earlier (Walnut) had Tennessee Marble tops and veneered drawer fronts. Both of those elements are missing from this Oak set. Perhaps they were available in more expensive models. The last difference is the absence of candle stick holders on the oak mirror frame. Perhaps this is signifying the move towards electric light over candlelight. Or perhaps this is a detail that was left out for cost or shipping reasons.

Overall, the set was in pretty good shape. One thing about Oak is that it is solid as a rock! It makes for some sturdy furniture. I have broken this post into three sections below which deal with the three pieces in the set.

The Washstand

The washstand below had some structural damage to the door . It also needed new drawer runners and the finish was removed and replaced with a new one. The piece was selectively stained and coated with a French Polish and then waxed. The hardware was also cleaned and everything was brought back to proper functioning order.

Here is a photo of the washstand as it came to me. The towel rack was removed in this photo.

These next two photos show the damage to the door. A previous repair was attempted by breaking an old hinge apart and screwing it on either side of the break. All of this was removed and the door was properly repaired.

This photo shows the washstand after the finish was removed and the piece was sanded.
These three photos show the restored washstand from a few angles.




The Dresser with Mirror

The Chest with mirror is seen in the photo below as it came to me. The mirror had the original glass with a beveled edge. One repair that was not documented with photographs was the removal of a large oil stain in the top. Most likely, this stain was from a oil lamp breaking, or cracking on the top of the dresser. After the finish was removed, the stain could not be sanded out. The answer was to bleach the top using a special wood bleach. Once the top was bleached the stain was gone. The top was then sanded and stained to match the color of the rest of the set. If you look closely in the photo below you can see the stain on the the top of the dresser.
The drawers had some significant runner damage. The one in the photo below was the worst.
To fix the runner on this particular drawer, the drawer was disassembled, and the broken area was removed. I then added new wood to the drawer side to build it back up and cut new dovetails to fit it back into place.
This photo shows the drawer side being glued back in place.

This photo shows material being added to all of the drawer runners for the chest ( and the washstand).
This photo shows the blocks that hold the mirror glass in place being glued in place.
These last three photos show the completed dresser with mirror.



The Bed

The bed had some minor repairs to it. The main issue with this piece was the finish and some mysterious white paint like substance on the headboard. This was quickly removed with the finish and the bed was sanded, selectively stained, and refinished. The photo below shows the bed as it came to me.
This photo shows the rails after the finish was removed.
These last two photos show the bed fully restored.

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

Eastlake Bedroom Set (ca. 1880) Part 1

Before getting into the details of the bedroom set which I am currently restoring, I thought it might be a good idea to shed some light on the Eastlake style in America. The Eastlake style of furniture is named after Charles Lock Eastlake (b.1836- d.1906) who was an English architect and interior designer and part of the larger arts and crafts movement in England during the second half of the 19th century. His book, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details, Published in 1872 took its inspiration from Gothic motifs and called for a return to hand made furniture using clean lines and largely rectilinear forms. Eastlake's belief was that Victorian furniture had grown to be overly decorated and that the designs demonstrated in the Rococo and Renaissance Revivals were too flashy, and that furniture design was being dictated not by artistic inspiration, but by what the latest machines were capable of mass producing in the furniture factories of the day. Eastlake and others like him called for a reform in furniture design which pointed towards a more "honest" look, which moved away from the curvy, floral, ornate designs of the previous decades.

The irony of this is that his designs called for straight line moldings and shallow incised carvings, both design elements which were easily produced by the furniture factories of the late 19th century. What resulted was an explosion of "Eastlake" style furniture in America during the last 20 years of the 19th century. While Eastlake himself distanced himself from this approach to his earlier designs, the furniture was widely accepted by the American public, and the major furniture hubs of the late 19th century produced bedroom sets, arm chairs, tables, and just about every other form of furniture in mass quantities.

The furniture I am presently working on is a bedroom set made in one of these furniture hubs during the late 19th century. The primary wood used is black walnut and the secondary wood used throughout is poplar. Each piece in the set employs fine walnut burl veneer as a focal point. What I find so interesting about this furniture style is that it is one of the earliest to be made entirely in a mass production setting and each element is produced by machine. Even the dovetails on the furniture are made by machine. The drawer joinery in fact, is not a dovetail at all, but is called a Knapp Joint. for more on the Knapp Joint, follow this link to an earlier entry on this blog:

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

The walnut used on these pieces has beautiful grain and the whole set has great potential. The repairs to the pieces were extensive, so I have decided to break them down into three sections, each section detailing the repairs made to one piece.

The Bed

The finish for all three pieces had deteriorated to the point that I decided to remove it. The upshot of this is that the stain that was in the finish would also come off, showing off the natural color and grain of the walnut.

There were also several repairs that needed to be made to the bed prior to the new finish being put on. Below are some photos of the bed as it came to me and the repairs made to the bed.

The head board.

The side rails.

This close up of the side rails shows a missing section on the left hand rail.

The foot board.

This photo shows a broken section on the foot board.

This photo shows the condition of the original finish. The burl veneer on the headboard was obscured by the old finish.

This photo shows the same veneer after the finish was removed.

This photo shows some molding which had fallen off of the side rail being glued back in place.


The next series of photos show the repair to the missing section of the side rail. Since I had one complete side rail, I was able to make a template by tracing the existing rail onto foam board. After that I cut it out to make the template below.

After I figured out how much of the template was necessary, I traced the pattern onto new wood as seen in the photo below.

This photo shows the template and the new wood cut to shape

Here is the new wood being glued into place.

This photo shows the finished patch after sanding.


As seen in an earlier photo, the foot board was missing a portion of the molding.

This shows the molding cleaned and squared off to receive a patch.

here is a photo of the patch being glued in place...

...and the patch ready to be carved.

This photo shows the head board during the sanding process.

Here is the bed set up to check for loose joinery. The whole bed was tight and the slats were numbered for the best possible fit. The bed is also sanded in this photo and ready for the new finish.

The Chest with Mirror
 These first two photos show the chest and the mirror as they came to me.

In order to refinish the mirror frame, it was necessary to remove the mirror back and glass. When I did this I found this piece of paper glued to the inside of the back. The paper shows the names of several towns in Ohio and their population numbers. Below is a photo of the paper followed by two detail shots that are pretty legible.

The secondary wood in the mirror frame had cracked and warped behind the veneer causing the veneer to tear. This photo shows this section being repaired.

The interior runners for the chest were severely worn .the bottoms of the drawers were also worn. the next few photos shows the repairs made to the drawer runner system.

This photo is of the interior runners removed from the carcass of the chest.

The wear was due to the bottoms of the drawers rubbing wood away, so once the interior runners were removed, the worn wood was cut away and replaced with new wood. Below is a photo of the new wood before it was glued in place.

This photo shows all of the interior runners having new wood added to them.

While the glue was drying on the interior runners, I turned my focus to the drawer bottoms. To display the amount of wear on the drawer bottoms, I put a square up to a drawer side in the photo below. The bottom of the drawer should run parallel to the square and perpendicular to the drawer front.

I removed the damaged area of the drawer by standing the drawers up on end on the table saw. the next two photos show this process. The saw was stopped for the photo!

Once the worn wood was removed, I glued new wood in it's place. This process was done for the chest and the wash stand. Below is a photo of all of the drawers being glued up.

The photo below shows the interior runners with the new wood in place. It is hard to believe, but all of the wood in this photo is poplar. the new wood was stained to match the old.

The next  two photos here show the interior runners being glued in place. I use pieces of wood wedged in place to "clamp"  the interior runners in place while the glue dries.

This photo shows the drawers after the new bottoms were glued in place.

Here is the mirror frame after the sanding was completed.

And this photo shows the chest after sanding with the repaired drawers in place.

The Wash Stand

The wash stand got the same treatment as the rest of the pieces, but the least amount of photo documentation! I did make several repairs to the doors and  the drawers, but I only have a few photo to show for it. One change I made to the stand was to remove an inappropriate glass knob that was attached to the door. I had a suitable brass turnbuckle which was fitted to the chest and looks much more appropriate.

This first photo shows the wash stand as it came to me.

This detail shot shows some loose joinery on the door which was repaired.

This photo shows the wash stand repaired, sanded, and ready for finishing.

It should be noted that the chest and the washstand have marble tops which are not pictured in these repair shots. They will be displayed in the photos of the completed pieces. My next post will show the finishing of these three pieces.