James Mittlefehldt
06-26-2005, 7:44 AM
My wife and offspring were in New Hampshire from Wednesday till late last night. I was on my own so I went to an antique mall I like, to have a look around yesterday. For some reason SC was on my mind very much as I went through it. This could be a little long but hopefully of some interest.
There seemed to be a number of new vendors form the last time I was there, so it took me a long time to go through the place. I saw an early Victorian dresser with four drawers below, and two smaller ones on each side of the arched mirror. The dresser was made of a beautiful Mahogany, the drawers all having a highly figured grain.
The four smaller drawers flanking the mirror, were all nicely dovetailed, though I noticed that like many such pieces, the rear dovetails were done either by an apprentice or the master did them in a hurry, they did not show the same attention to detail the more visible ones on the front did. I also noticed somethng I have not noted before but I am sure I read it somewhere. The four small drawers had their bottoms, which by the way had been handplaned to fit the drawer botton groove, extending beyond the ends of the drawer sides, each one a slightly different length, to I assume, make the fronts fit flush in their openings.
I got into a discussion with one of the floor walkers about some 1920's dining roome suites. One I am sure was made by Gibbard an old established company that I believe is still in business today. The wood was all Walnut, not figured but very nicely aged. There were six chairs a table a buffet or sideboard, and a china cabinet. The secondery woods were all hard woods, and they used a particular lock joint on the drawer fronts that I rarely see except on their stuff. There was no plywood or MDF or particle board in the entire set. It was $2100. and in mint condition.
To buy a new set like that with the same type of material would cost well in excess of $10,000 here so a relative bargain I would say.
The next booth had a yet a another suite that totalled roughly $1800. Same thing six chairs etc., except on this suite the drawer fronts were all a lighter looking Burled Walnut veneer.
I wondered when I looked at them if you could buy the wood to make them for what they were selling for?
I also saw quite a few pieces that may have been made by carpenters as opposed to cabinet makers as the proportions were sometimes rather odd, and for all you fellas that fret about your dovetails having small gaps I wouldn't worry many of these peices had to be a hundred and fifty years old and were holding up well. I know I can cut neater dovetails than many of those.
So next time any of you are beating youself up over the quality of your dovetails go and look at some antique furniture, yours are probably not that bad.
There were assorted tools of course, a number of moulding planes ranging from eitheen to forty five dollars each. Many of the more expensive ones having had an application of BLO or maybe even poly urethane, yuck.
I saw a really beautiful looking brass backed saw that was in between my large tenon saw and my English Dovetail saw and was considering it till I noticed that one part of the blade looked as if someone had been sqeezed in a punch of some sort right on the teeth.
I also saw for $27 a KK5 which I assum is a Keen Kutter plane? I also saw a Baily no 4, for $22, which for some reason looked a bit short, but when I picked it up it was quite heavy, and I noticed the sides seemed thicker than normal, would that have been one of those wartime planes I keep hearing about on here? I will have to go to Patrick Leach's site and see about that.
If you read the whole post then thank you, and if you have any comments or debatable points by all means do so.
There seemed to be a number of new vendors form the last time I was there, so it took me a long time to go through the place. I saw an early Victorian dresser with four drawers below, and two smaller ones on each side of the arched mirror. The dresser was made of a beautiful Mahogany, the drawers all having a highly figured grain.
The four smaller drawers flanking the mirror, were all nicely dovetailed, though I noticed that like many such pieces, the rear dovetails were done either by an apprentice or the master did them in a hurry, they did not show the same attention to detail the more visible ones on the front did. I also noticed somethng I have not noted before but I am sure I read it somewhere. The four small drawers had their bottoms, which by the way had been handplaned to fit the drawer botton groove, extending beyond the ends of the drawer sides, each one a slightly different length, to I assume, make the fronts fit flush in their openings.
I got into a discussion with one of the floor walkers about some 1920's dining roome suites. One I am sure was made by Gibbard an old established company that I believe is still in business today. The wood was all Walnut, not figured but very nicely aged. There were six chairs a table a buffet or sideboard, and a china cabinet. The secondery woods were all hard woods, and they used a particular lock joint on the drawer fronts that I rarely see except on their stuff. There was no plywood or MDF or particle board in the entire set. It was $2100. and in mint condition.
To buy a new set like that with the same type of material would cost well in excess of $10,000 here so a relative bargain I would say.
The next booth had a yet a another suite that totalled roughly $1800. Same thing six chairs etc., except on this suite the drawer fronts were all a lighter looking Burled Walnut veneer.
I wondered when I looked at them if you could buy the wood to make them for what they were selling for?
I also saw quite a few pieces that may have been made by carpenters as opposed to cabinet makers as the proportions were sometimes rather odd, and for all you fellas that fret about your dovetails having small gaps I wouldn't worry many of these peices had to be a hundred and fifty years old and were holding up well. I know I can cut neater dovetails than many of those.
So next time any of you are beating youself up over the quality of your dovetails go and look at some antique furniture, yours are probably not that bad.
There were assorted tools of course, a number of moulding planes ranging from eitheen to forty five dollars each. Many of the more expensive ones having had an application of BLO or maybe even poly urethane, yuck.
I saw a really beautiful looking brass backed saw that was in between my large tenon saw and my English Dovetail saw and was considering it till I noticed that one part of the blade looked as if someone had been sqeezed in a punch of some sort right on the teeth.
I also saw for $27 a KK5 which I assum is a Keen Kutter plane? I also saw a Baily no 4, for $22, which for some reason looked a bit short, but when I picked it up it was quite heavy, and I noticed the sides seemed thicker than normal, would that have been one of those wartime planes I keep hearing about on here? I will have to go to Patrick Leach's site and see about that.
If you read the whole post then thank you, and if you have any comments or debatable points by all means do so.