Woodwould
22nd June 2008, 11:55 AM
A very odd looking lighthouse-shaped fiddleback maple display cabinet came up for auction at Christies in Melbourne some years ago although curiously it was catalogued as being walnut!
One of Melbourne's more flamboyant and well known antique jewellers was a frequent customer of mine and on my recommendation, he bought the cabinet. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but, when in Rome etc.
I haven't a clue what the original intended purpose of this cabinet was because underneath it had three castors which would indicate it sat on the floor, but it was really too low to have been of any use for displaying very much at that height.
My brief was to sympathetically raise the cabinet to a more realistic height which would render it practical for displaying antique jewellery in the customer's shop.
This not being my normal quarry (although technically I suppose it was an antique – just!), and maple not being a species of wood I had encountered in my usual realm of seventeenth and eighteenth century antiques, I didn't think it would pose any great problems.
How wrong could I have been! The customer and I had agreed that borrowing gun barrel legs, a wavy stretcher and bun feet from earlier periods would give the cabinet a pleasant and airy appearance while pre-dating its actual vintage - all bonuses to our combined ways of thinking.
Some fiddleback maple veneer was procured, but exhaustive phone calls couldn't unearth any large enough pieces of fiddleback maple for the legs. I did however manage to locate some plain maple which was something, but meant I would have to resort to some trickery to match the legs and bun feet to the remainder of the cabinet.
I upturned the cabinet, removed the castors and glued some pine blocks in place to accept the spigots on the gun barrel legs I had turned. While it was upside down, I also added a cockbead to the bottom perimeter of the cabinet to finish the edge.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_01b.jpg
The wavy stretcher was made from pine and veneered in fiddleback maple. Here the edge veneer is being glued in place.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_02b.jpg
A quick coat or two of Antique Lighthouse…
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_05b.jpg
…and a good waxing and all was done.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_06b.jpg
One of Melbourne's more flamboyant and well known antique jewellers was a frequent customer of mine and on my recommendation, he bought the cabinet. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but, when in Rome etc.
I haven't a clue what the original intended purpose of this cabinet was because underneath it had three castors which would indicate it sat on the floor, but it was really too low to have been of any use for displaying very much at that height.
My brief was to sympathetically raise the cabinet to a more realistic height which would render it practical for displaying antique jewellery in the customer's shop.
This not being my normal quarry (although technically I suppose it was an antique – just!), and maple not being a species of wood I had encountered in my usual realm of seventeenth and eighteenth century antiques, I didn't think it would pose any great problems.
How wrong could I have been! The customer and I had agreed that borrowing gun barrel legs, a wavy stretcher and bun feet from earlier periods would give the cabinet a pleasant and airy appearance while pre-dating its actual vintage - all bonuses to our combined ways of thinking.
Some fiddleback maple veneer was procured, but exhaustive phone calls couldn't unearth any large enough pieces of fiddleback maple for the legs. I did however manage to locate some plain maple which was something, but meant I would have to resort to some trickery to match the legs and bun feet to the remainder of the cabinet.
I upturned the cabinet, removed the castors and glued some pine blocks in place to accept the spigots on the gun barrel legs I had turned. While it was upside down, I also added a cockbead to the bottom perimeter of the cabinet to finish the edge.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_01b.jpg
The wavy stretcher was made from pine and veneered in fiddleback maple. Here the edge veneer is being glued in place.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_02b.jpg
A quick coat or two of Antique Lighthouse…
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_05b.jpg
…and a good waxing and all was done.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/maple_display_cabinet_06b.jpg