A tale with a twist.

[Woodwould]

Sometime during 1993 I must have filled in my details somewhere and ticked a box because I began receiving flyers about the Melbourne Timber and Working with Wood Show in the mail. My wife drew my attention to one of the categories titled 'Antique Reproductions' and suggested I should enter a piece of furniture.

I can't remember whether another flyer arrived in the mail or whether my wife reminded me but at any rate, I hadn't got around to making anything for the show. I eventually completed the requisite forms and entered a copy of a c. 1730 George II walnut bureau bookcase that I had made for myself some years prior.

My wife and I attended the opening night and the judge who delivered the awards speech made a comment along the lines of one of the entrants not having embraced the spirit of the event.

I didn't win a prize (and I didn't honestly expect to), but I was surprised when a 'Sheraton gun cabinet' won the antiques category considering there's no such thing as an antique Sheraton gun cabinet… I suppose it's no greater a crime than the 'Queen Anne TV cabinets' and 'Jacobean telephone tables' that one used to see for sale in the back pages of the weekend colour supplements.

We had a walk round and admired the other exhibits and were at the point of heading off home when we noticed a gathering round my entry. One of the judges was holding court in front of the bureau and was berating it as a badly restored original and possibly a marriage (of two separate pieces of furniture) to boot! A number of people in the small crowd were lending support to the belief and declaring it should never have been allowed in the show.

My wife and I beat a hasty retreat as I have a fine singing voice which would not have been improved with me dangling on the end of a rope.

The walnut bureau bookcase.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_bureau_bookcase_02d.jpg

That Christmas, I took a few days off work to fell an English walnut tree (Juglans Regia) and prepare some timber in preparation for the next Working with Wood Show. I'm not normally a competitive or vindictive person, but I'll be damned if some naff judge with little appreciation of the category he was presiding over was going to make me look so small before the woodies of Melbourne!



With the popularisation of tea in the first half of the eighteenth century, tea tables became a necessary addition to many inventories in large houses across Britain and Europe. English tea tables followed a fairly common form being a folding square top on a rectangular frame and supported by four legs, with one or both back legs extending rearwards to support the top leaf when the table was opened up for use. When not in use, the tables would sit against a wall with the top leaf folded over the bottom one.

I decided on a storyboard with step-by-step photos and descriptions of the entire creation process to accompany my early Georgian walnut oyster-veneered tea table. I took photos at every stage of the construction, from the conversion of the tree trunk, to the making of the English oak carcass, to the making of the brass hinges and even the hand cutting of the steel screws that secured the hinges in place.

Unfortunately the storyboard had disappeared by the end of the show, but below are some photos I found in a box recently that weren't included on the storyboard.

The components for one of the English oak leaves.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_01b.jpg

One of the frame rails veneered with walnut 'oysters'.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_02b.jpg

Laying out the oysters for the upper side of the top leaf.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_03b.jpg

Veneering the under side of the top leaf. The upper side of the bottom leaf is treated in exactly the same manner. The walnut veneers were cut from the log and are about 2mm thick (in keeping with 18th century hand cut veneers).
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_04b.jpg

One of the four hinge blanks cut from a sheet of authentic alloyed brass.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_07b.jpg

One of the assembled hinges awaiting final filing, buffing and ageing.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_08b.jpg

The completed tea table in the white.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_05b.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_06b.jpg

The finished table.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_09b.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_13b.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/I-Got-Wood/Furniture/walnut_tea_table_16b.jpg

In light of the shenanigans of the previous year, neither the table nor my pedanticism was ever going to curry favour with the judges as it was perfectly clear why I had gone to such lengths to spell everything out, but I entered the table into the 1994 Melbourne Working with Wood Show all the same. It didn't win a prize.



A related story

On the same weekend of the Melbourne Working with Wood Show we happened to be moving house. I have a very large elm cupboard that I made and in the course of moving, it ended up in the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings along with the walnut tea table due to a misunderstanding with the removers. It would have been too costly to send the removers back to retrieve the cupboard, so there it remained for the duration of the show. It won second prize.


You can read more about the prize winning elm cupboard here…
http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=74377

[Batpig]

Holy Guacamole, Ed! - that's one heck of a nice table...

I guess it just goes to show you that some of those judges seem to know more about "chips" (particularly of the shoulder-mounted variety), than they do about "veneers"... :wink:

What a twist at the end, too! You must still have a good chuckle every time you think about it :D. Now I'll go and have a look at that cupboard...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

[wheelinround]

woodwould :o thats spectacular work love the Oyster top and that Mirror thing were the judges wearing blinkers at the time :doh:

:2tsup::2tsup: keep them coming it will encourage us I am sure

[Woodwould]

Thanks for the praise.


...were the judges wearing blinkers at the time :doh:

I believe it was ignorance on their part which is very disappointing (although the individual judge's behaviour following the awards was unprofessional and reprehensible).

One would expect a category to be judged by an individual or panel with a deep understanding of the topic.

[prozac]

Nice veneering. Seeing how it is a veneer you could have glued straight onto mdf.

prozac

[Woodwould]

I don't believe MDF was available in the eighteenth century. :;
I'm a bit of a purist and I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing it wasn't an exact copy.

[artme]

More beautiful workWW and a very interesting tale to boot.:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I sometimes wonder about Judges and the accolytes who grovel at their feet.
I have scond thoughts about entering competitions because I'm not always sure the "judge" is the right person to do the job.

[Durdge39]

Again, a spectacular piece WoodWould! Remarkable work you do each time.

Seems the judges should go back to drinking their beers telling each other how wonderful they are. Still amazes me how - for lack of a better word - stupid some people can be.

[Christopha]

You might have been more successful if you had entered a rocking horse! ;)

[Woodwould]

At the time (it may not be the case nowadays), there appeared to be a strong element of the 'old boys network'. The promoter, a certain woodworking magazine and at least some of the judges were in each others pockets. The judge in question was a frequent contributor (antiques editor?) for the magazine with regular full page coverage of some of his projects.

One can't expect impartiality or fairness in such a den of thieves.

[Superbunny]

WW, you make me wanna cry. I love your work, I just wish I had been your apprentice.:2tsup:

[Woodwould]

You might have been more successful if you had entered a rocking horse! ;)

It would probably have been the wrong breed! :roll:

[Woodwould]

I just wish I had been your apprentice.:2tsup:

You would have been welcome… in fact I would have welcomed anyone with a brain and total dedication. People with those attributes are never to be found when you want them.

[clare]

Your work is staggeringly beautiful. Gobsmacking actually. :oo:

As for the judges, well what to say, really!!!???? Ignorance, tall poppy, jealousy, old boy networks etc etc. I know not what, but it sometimes seems systemically entrenched.

Thanks so much for sharing.

[Woodwould]

Your work is staggeringly beautiful. Gobsmacking actually. :oo:

As for the judges, well what to say, really!!!???? Ignorance, tall poppy, jealousy, old boy networks etc etc. I know not what, but it sometimes seems systemically entrenched.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Thank you!

I look back on it all now and smile. If I hadn't been treated so badly I wouldn't have been driven to make the tea table and it's now a valued and much used member of our household.

[prozac]

I cannot imagine making something that beautiful let alone coming up with the idea in the first place. Great story too!

I expected more reaction to the mdf suggestion. :U

prozac

[Woodwould]

I expected more reaction to the mdf suggestion. :U

prozac

If you'd been here when I first read your suggestion you would have heard my reaction and the profanity. My wife called from another room "What now!" :;

[Ron Dunn]

The next time anyone, anywhere, asks for a definition of "fine woodworking", please point them to this thread.

I never know whether to feel inspired or crushed by Woodwould's posts, but once my ego steps out of the way I just sit in amazement.

[zenwood]

Lovely work in both pieces. I've never seen 'oysters' before. Was that a common method of veneering in the 18th century? Does the endgrain presentation give rise to cracking or other wood movement issues?

Love to see some progress pics of hand-cutting the steel screws. You're obviously a devoted purist: well done, and keep posting: I'm sure we can all learn a thing or two.

[Woodwould]

Thanks for the kind words.

Oyster veneered furniture was and is considered the zenith of seventeenth and early eighteenth century furniture - especially laburnum pieces. It's not all that common as a lot of examples have succumbed to the ravages of time. They are difficult and expensive pieces to restore.

The oysters do suffer problems with contraction and expansion, but a sound yet crackled appearance makes many a connoisseur go weak at the knees. The oysters are renowned for lifting off their groundwork and the use of modern glues exposes the fakes and also devalues many unsympathetically restored antiques.

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of hand cutting screws, but it's not nearly as difficult as it sounds. It is time consuming though and is regarded as unnecessary by most people now, but with some restoration jobs it's imperative to hand cut them.

[rhancock]

The next time anyone, anywhere, asks for a definition of "fine woodworking", please point them to this thread.

I never know whether to feel inspired or crushed by Woodwould's posts, but once my ego steps out of the way I just sit in amazement.

In my dreams, one day I'll be able to produce work like that...

[Johncs]

One would expect a category to be judged by an individual or panel with a deep understanding of the topic.


I used to be a member of a camera club in the Mt Waverley area. Mostly, my entries were B+W prints, rarely colour and once slides.

One week the judge of the regular competition as an artist, I think the director of the local art gallery.

I'd recently been reading up in Ilford's then-new XP-400 film, a B+W C-41 (colour) film. One of its great advantages is it can be developed at the local minilab along with the regular batch of Kodak & Fuji colour films. Illford also claimed finer grain (but then every film has fine grain!), and a loss-promoted characterisic is that one can push two stops and process in E6 (colour slide - but not Kodachrome - chemistry).

I stuck a roll in the Canon and went for a stroll around Mt Waverley. I found a house, fairly typical of the area, that was different in that the front entrance was framed with a couple of white columns.

I had the camera on a tripoid, so I stood directly across the road, pointed the camera at the entrance, framed the pic so the columns were at the sides (vertical orientation) and shot it.

Oh, a characteristic of XP-400 film is that it's not actually B+W, prints on colour paper have a faint reddish tinge, and the slides I got back were distinctly green.

The judge was flummoxed. I don't think he'd seen a monochrome slide before, let alone a green one. He rattled on about the ugly house (which I didn't find ugly), how expertly I'd portrayed its deficiencies and awared me "Top Slide" or some such for the evening.

I regularly entered prints, but this is the entry I remember best, because I found the judging so funny!

To be fair, the green tint may have confounded a regular photographer too, but the judging would have been less memorable.