Comments on: 1874 Ornamental Wood Company Catalog

By: John Werry

John Werry — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:37:10 +0000

Thanks for the reminder, Steve. I’ve updated the post above to reflect the correct ownership.

By: stever

stever — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:37:56 +0000

Greetings-

It has been a long time since this original post was made
and it made me uncomfortable enough at that time to respond
to John personally to report its’ innaccuracies. Unfortunately,
upon reading Rare Victorian’s most recent post and its’ link
to this catalogue I have been reminded again that the correction
has not been made.

In John’s post, credit was given to me (Steve Rowe) as being
the owner of this original catalogue. It is true that John and
I shared many very interesting emails regarding the ornamental
catalogue (which prompted me to send him a copy at his
request). However, I am not the owner of this original catalogue
and feel credit should be given where it is due. Mr. Rhett
Butler of E.R. Butler and company, New York, owns the
original and sent me a copy as a gift. Mr. Butler is one of
the leading catalogue collectors in America and probably owns
the most extensive collection in this country. He is a personal
friend of mine and I have requested that he might allow
Rare Victorian to post this catalogue. Mr. Butler’s company
uses these various catalogues in their research to manufacture
superior products in many different fields. I am certain that in due time I will be able to email John with his permission, but for now
we must accept his wishes as he is the owner of this historical find.

Stever

By: Antique Attributions Murky Part I | Rare Victorian

Antique Attributions Murky Part I | Rare Victorian — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:41:10 +0000

[...] Ornamental Wood Company is a great example of how these component pieces were centrally made and distributed to many makers. [...]

By: RareVictorian

RareVictorian — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:26:36 +0000

Send me photos and I will have a better shot at finding some information for you. info @ rarevictorian.com

By: Ronnie

Ronnie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:17:19 +0000

would like to know if you have seen or know about a chaise lounge/fainting chair thats brown leather and has molds on each side of lions laying down with leaves etc. the molds could almost pass as wood carvings however are not. The lions almost look evil! scary looking…I have looked to find anything about this in antique books etc. but have found nothing.

By: 1836

1836 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:20:14 +0000

I’ve posted photos of a cabinet with a seemingly identical lion motif in the Forum section (“RE: 1874 Ornamental Wood Company Catalogue”)

By: Emeriol

Emeriol — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:08:00 +0000

John,
Can you scan more images of the catalog?

By: Vaillancourt Antiquities

Vaillancourt Antiquities — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Great find, as I read this I had to look at the very chair I was sitting in to verify the presence of something that looks identical to No. 242, next to a bed sporting No. 208 and a shelf with No. 246 – but other items in the house do not match any pictured so I suppose there were other manufacturers of these or I posess the pressed variety as well.

Does anyone know where repros can be purchased, as I have an idea for valances? My clockmaker can order them in metal but only of a diminutive size…

By: John W

John W — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Woodwright. Welcome to the site. I was not aware that duplicators were available back then.

I assume these machines would work on the artificial (name escaping me now) materials as well. I have a bed with these applied “carvings”. While not made of wood, they were probably were made to look so 140 years ago, though today the difference is obvious.

By: jbkoehn

jbkoehn — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:42:00 +0000

These were probably machine carved by carving machines/ duplicators – the quick and affordable way to produce a carving once a “master” carving or template is made (the master/ template doesn’t even have to be wood – it could be plaster, or a casting etc.). Machine carvings have thier limitations on details because of the rotary cuttters and tracing stylus’s diameter. They may have been finished up by hand to add crisp detail. Also FYI: Many moldings (sometimes chair backs too – refered to as pressbacks) that are assumed to have been carved were actually “pressed” – the wood is steamed to soften it, then a metal mold is pressed into it with great mechanical pressure. The depth of the pattern can pressed into a molding is usually limited to 1/8 – 3/16″. Beyond that it will start to crush and break the fibers of the wood. Woodwright