Two Queen Anne Lowboys

[Robert LaPlaca]

The two Queen Anne Lowboys pictured here were built from the plans in Norm Vandals book Queen Anne Furniture (by the way Vandals plans are excellent).

The lowboy on the left primary wood is Walnut and secondary is Poplar, the lowboy on the right primary wood is Cherry and secondary is also Poplar. The Walnut lowboy was built for 'the boss lady', the cherry lowboy was a wedding present for my niece.

Brasses are from Ball and Ball.. Finish is Waterlox Original.

Thanks for looking..

[Bruce Page]

Stunning heirloom craftsmanship Robert. How many hours do you have in them?

The boss lady & niece are very lucky.

[Gordon Eyre]

Gorgeous work on both of these. Definitely an heirloom project that was built with love.

[gary Zimmel]

Now those are two sweet pieces..
Beautiful craftsmanship Robert. Thanks for the look see.

[Van Huskey]

Absolutely beautiful! Excellent work.

[Allan Froehlich]

Awesome!

I want to build something like that some day and I am inspired by your work. Those turned out beautiful!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Robert....those are, indeed, beautiful and will be cherished and passed down through generations. Very nicely done sir!

[Robert LaPlaca]

Stunning heirloom craftsmanship Robert. How many hours do you have in them?



Bruce I am a very slow builder, I would guess that each lowboy has about 80-100 hours. Largest portion of the time was spent on the legs and the fan carving and then the most dreaded of tasks, finishing..

[John Thompson]

Excellent Robert....

[Danny Hamsley]

I am impressed with the quality of your work. The pieces are beautiful! Seeing pieces like this is one of the reasons that I love this site :).

[Jeff Monson]

Robert, those are 2 stunning pieces, great work, I'm very impressed with your grain matching on the knee transitions!!!

[Jim Rimmer]

Beautiful pieces. And a very lucky (and loved) niece.

[John Timberlake]

Terrific work. Great wedding present.

[allen levine]

inspirational woodworking. Incredible craftmanship.

[Cody Colston]

Beautiful renditions of a classic design.

[Tom Lindsay]

Beautiful work, and I love the legs! I do have a question about the "ear" on the one cabriole in the close-up photo. The grain pattern looks perfectly matched to the top of the leg. Amazing! I am in the process of starting my first attempt at cabrioles for some end tables, and I don't believe I would be able to match the ears with the legs that well (unless it was all carved from a single piece).

Is it a matter of just matching as best you can with the left-over pieces? Any hints or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Beautiful work, and I love the legs! I do have a question about the "ear" on the one cabriole in the close-up photo. The grain pattern looks perfectly matched to the top of the leg. Amazing! I am in the process of starting my first attempt at cabrioles for some end tables, and I don't believe I would be able to match the ears with the legs that well (unless it was all carved from a single piece).

Is it a matter of just matching as best you can with the left-over pieces? Any hints or suggestions would be appreciated.

Tom,

First thank you for the kind words about the piece..

Picking the right lumber is a really big part of getting a Cabriolet leg that looks right, I used riftsawn 12/4 stock. If one looks at the orientation of the leg growth rings from the top of the lowboy with the top off, the leg growth rings are in an X pattern, this makes the grain 'flow down' the lines of the cabriolet leg, without competing with the curves of the leg..

The knee brackets (ears) were created from the off cuts of the legs at the post, the legs are made from 2 5/8 (net) thick stock, the leg posts are 1 5/8 so there is plenty of material to make the brackets, just need to make sure you number the offcuts so you know where they belong..

Hope this helps...

[Tom Lindsay]

Robert,

Thanks for the hints. I assumed that my left-over leg cut-offs would be too small for ears, but it sounds like that was a bad assumption.

[glenn bradley]

Bootiful, just bootiful.