Monthly Archives: February 2017
One Million
I began this blog on the 14th of September 2009 primarily to keep my far-flung family apprised of my activities. The power of Google slowly started directing strangers to my blog from all corners of the globe and then one … Continue reading
Picture This CIV
A simple, stylish eighteenth-century comb-back Windsor chair comprising a D-shaped seat, one-piece bent arm, blade arm posts, plain crest rail and Goldsmith-esque legs with H-pattern stretchers. The seat, arm and crest rail appear to be sycamore and the remainder is … Continue reading
A George II Walnut Serpentine Chest – Part Four
I don’t have any images of the rear of the original walnut chest; however, roughly thirty years ago I restored a mid-eighteenth-century chest of remarkably similar quality and construction (though of mahogany) which had an oddly asymmetrical three-panel pine back. … Continue reading
Picture This CIII
Like the George III mahogany serpentine chest of drawers in Cross-Grained Mouldings, this unusual little mahogany chest-on-chest from the third quarter of the eighteenth-century displays an out-of-period cross-grained moulding (figs. 1 & 2) – one of the latest examples of … Continue reading
Cursed!
Seventeenth-century Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog landed on the west coast of Australia on the 25th of October 1616 (only the second European to do so). Having tarried merely three days on the continent, he set sail again, writing in his … Continue reading
Patches
No, not the Fentanyl/Norspan patches that some of us stick on our upper arms; I am talking about the patches that were let into veneered (and on occasion, solid) furniture at the time of production to supplant dead knots, voids, … Continue reading
A George II Walnut Serpentine Chest – Part Three
The walnut cross-grain moulding was formed along the serpentine front edge of the carcase’s baseboard prior to assembling the carcase (fig. 1). Fig. 1. The cross-grain moulding already opening up in the 41° (106°F) heat. I cut the one-sided dovetail … Continue reading
Pegs and 'Tails 