Thread: Restoration of Antique Australian Cedar Cylinder-Top, twin pedestal Secretaire desk

Missed this earlier. Great result, do you know who the original maker was?

Very impressive, hard to imagine that you can go from what you started with to the finished result. A lovely piece, the figure in the timber and the matching are a real highlight and an indication this was originally a high class expensive item

Originally Posted by AlexS

Missed this earlier. Great result, do you know who the original maker was?

Thanks. No, like most Australian 19th century furniture it is unsigned. Also, this is not the work of a master cabinetmaker who would have been more likely to sign it. Although the maker used superbly figured timber and some finesse in the piece it is, overall, quite provincial in construction. For example, the construction of the lower carcase is very odd. The skirting boards run right around the pedestals as though there were no central cupboard and the cupboard is built on top of them, but has exactly the same panel door design and construction as the two pedestal cupboards. The central cupboard component may have been added as an afterthought, or else the builder did not know what he was doing.

I suspect it was made by convicts either in a government lumber yard or assigned to the magistrate or judge since they would have been able to request that they be provided with furniture. It seems likely that the basic carcase was made by a less experienced worker and that someone with experience or training in cabinetmaking instructed them and then finished off the fine veneer work on the upper portion of the piece.There is no way of proving that of course.

Australian furniture experts indicate that many pieces in Australia were made from memory of a design rather than directly from a design book and they therefore have some very individual quirkiness. To me, the quirkiness reached its peak in Tasmanian furniture but was present in the provinces elsewhere too. Personally, I like the quirkiness, though the most highly sought after Australian furniture is that with the purest design, excellent construction and full provenance, preferably signed by the maker. This is a lovely piece but not in that category.

Nicely done. Thanks for sharing.
I think you have carefully balanced the repair and restoration and finished with a fine piece with great character.

Originally Posted by johnc

A lovely piece, the figure in the timber and the matching are a real highlight and an indication this was originally a high class expensive item

Hi johnc,

Yes indeed, and to add to/clarify what I said above about the item being provincial and not top class I agree that the choice of timber and the finesse of its construction in the coopering of the cylinder top and veneering would have lifted this above the norm for its day and that such figured timber would have been highly sought after - I have not seen much made with that quality of figured cedar so I presume it would have been expensive to make.

What lets the piece down is in the details that would not have been clear from my earlier posts - that is its carcase construction as well as the fact that they only cross-banded (veneered) the fronts of the boards at the top of the piece. If the maker had followed through and veneered the drawer fronts and edges of the pedestals this would have been one of the top pieces of its time.