Chats on Old Furniture: A Practical Guide for Collectors

by Arthur Hayden

The massive stand with artistically turned rails in Jacobean style, is soft wood artfully fumed and generously beeswaxed. The whole of the top portion has been added and is soft wood very well carved. The carving of the panels is also well executed, and is evidently a copy of some old design.

The older portion is a fine piece of early Jacobean work, and it is not difficult to distinguish between the feeling of this and the expression conveyed by the modern woodwork. The patina of the wood after two centuries of exposure and polishing has that peculiarly pleasing appearance which accompanies genuine old woodwork. The edges of the carving have lost their sharp angles, and the mellowness of the middle panels are in strong contrast to the harsher tone of those of the upper portion.

Such a piece as this would not deceive an expert, nor, perhaps, is it intended to, or greater care would have been bestowed upon it, but it is sufficiently harmonious in composition not to offend in a glaring manner, and might easily deceive a tyro.

The next piece illustrated (p. [267]) is interesting from another point of view. It is a more elaborate attempt to produce a piece of old furniture in which the details themselves have all the mellowness of fine old oak. In fact, with the exception of one portion, some eight inches by three, to which allusion will be made later, the whole of it is genuine old oak.

The three panels at the top are finely carved and are Jacobean work. The two outside panels at the bottom, though of a later period, are good work. The middle panel at the bottom is evidently a portion of a larger piece of carving, because the pattern abruptly breaks off, and it was most certainly not designed by the old carver to lie on its side in this fashion.

The two heads at the top corners have been cut from some old specimen, and artfully laid on. The carving on both sides, running below each head from top to bottom, is of two distinct designs joined in each case in a line level with the upper line of the lower panels. The two uprights on each side of the middle lower panel are exquisite pieces of carved work, but certainly never intended to be upright. They are evidently portions of a long, flowing ornament, as their cut-off appearance too plainly shows.

The top panels have done duty elsewhere, as part of the ornamental carving at the top and bottom of each lozenge is lost. The long line of scrolled carving above them is distinctly of interest. On the left hand, from the head to the middle of the panel, a piece of newer carving has been inserted, some eight inches long. The wood, at one time darkened to correspond with the adjacent carving, has become lighter, which is always the case when wood is stained to match other portions. The carving in this new portion follows in every detail the lines of the older design, and is a very pretty piece of "faking."

The cross-piece running from left to right, dividing the lower panels from the upper, is in three parts. An examination of the design shows that the last three circles on the right, and the last four on the left, are of smaller size than the others. The design evidently belonged to some other piece of furniture, and has been removed to do service in this "made-up" production.

In all probability the two uprights enclosing the top middle panel, and the two uprights on the outside at the bottom were once portions of a carved bedstead, as they are all of the same size and design. It is a notorious trick to slice an old carved bedpost into four pieces, skilfully fitting the pieces into "made-up" furniture.

There is a prevalent idea that worm-holes are actually produced in furniture, in order to give a new piece a more realistic appearance. There are traditions of duck-shot having been used, and there is little doubt that holes were drilled by makers who knew their public. But it is improbable that such artifices would be of much use for deceptive purposes nowadays. As a matter of fact, worm-holes are avoided by any one who gives a moment's thought to the matter. To get rid of worm in furniture is no easy task, and they eventually ruin any pieces they tenant.