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Tag Archives: mahogany
Picture This CXXXV
Here’s another one for the sleuths: This is described as a “quality solid mahogany dressing table, circa 1770”. Can I have your opinions please? Jack Plane
A Pair of George II Irish Walnut Side Chairs – Part One
In the late 1980s I restored four elegant mid-eighteenth-century Irish ‘red’ walnut side chairs with stuffover seats. If I did take any photos of them, I can’t locate them now; however, I did take the time to make patterns of … Continue reading
Three Species of Mahogany
There are three species of mahogany: — Common mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni), Swietenia febrifuga, and Swietenia chloroxylon: the first being a native of the West India Islands and the central parts of America, and the second and third natives of the … Continue reading
Posted in Furniture Timbers
Tagged mahogany, Swietenia chloroxylon, Swietenia febrifuga, Swietenia mahagoni
2 Comments
The Butler did it.
Wood has been used since time immemorial for making such things as rudimentary sticks for whacking animate and inanimate things with, to shelters and furniture etc. But wood really came into its own in the mid-nineteenth-century for creating the most … Continue reading
Posted in Distractions
Tagged ash, balsa, birch, Godwin Meade Pratt Swifte, larch, mahogany, screw, spruce, walnut
7 Comments
A George II Walnut Serpentine Chest – Part One
Towards the close of the seventeenth-century, rather heavy, solid wainscot (oak) furniture gave way to refined European walnut chairs, tables, mirrors and walnut-veneered wainscot and deal (pine) casework etc. Joined oak furniture was attractive enough, but somewhat workman-like and couldn’t … Continue reading
Picture This C
“All craftsmen make blunders, but what separates the truly great ones is the ability to redress their mistakes.” Regular reader, Burbidge, emailed me about an aspect of the mahogany linen press in figure 1. It conforms closely to the drawing … Continue reading
Posted in Antiques, Picture This
Tagged Chippendale, horizontally stacked corner blocks, linen press, mahogany, S-shaped escutcheons
10 Comments
Chairs and Shelves at Christie’s
Christie’s are conducting The English Collector: English Furniture, Clocks and Portrait Miniatures at their King Street, London rooms on the 17th of November 2016. Amongst the furniture on offer is lot 152, a set of six George II fruitwood Windsor … Continue reading
Posted in Auction Alerts
Tagged Chinoiserie, fruitwood, hanging shelves, mahogany, Windsor armchairs
9 Comments
Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830
For my North American reader: Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830 – an exhibition, August 19, 2016–January 8, 2017. Mahogany ‘desk and bookcase’ by Christopher Townsend, circa 1745–50. (Yale University) This groundbreaking exhibition presents a comprehensive survey … Continue reading
Posted in Antiques, Exhibitions
Tagged bureau bookcase, mahogany, North American furniture
22 Comments
Picture This XCIII
BADA (The British Antique Dealers’ Association) have partnered with art market specialists, The Curator’s Eye to launch the inaugural on-line BADA Auction on Thursday the 14th of July 2016. Some of BADA’s finest dealers have put up 413 lots that … Continue reading
Posted in Antiques, Auction Alerts
Tagged ash, BADA, burr ash, chest of drawers, horizontally stacked corner blocks, mahogany
3 Comments
Picture This LXXXI Redux
The mahogany chest of drawers, lot 313, featured in Picture This LXXXI was passed in at Bonham’s The Scottish Sale in Edinburgh on the 13th of April 2016. However, it reappeared in their Homes & Interiors sale on the 22nd … Continue reading
