Posts tagged as:

oak

John Henry Belter Lion & Serpent Decoration

March 24, 2009

In a recent post I mentioned a John Henry Belter sofa design that integrated uncommon Belter themes of sea serpents, lion arms and carved paw feet.  Photos of this sofa can be found on page 65 of the Belter book and are shown in this post.  Another less common attribute of this particular sofa is [...]

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Graining Machines Simulate Hardwood Grains

December 6, 2008

Yes, something was awry with the dresser that I provided the image of in the last post and kudos to those commentators who spotted it.  It was made ca. 1910 by the Arcadia Furniture Co. of Arcadia, Michigan using cheaper softwoods and grained with a graining machine.  Flat surfaces could be grained with a printing-press-like [...]

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Video – Final Episode: Refinishing A Merklen Brothers “Shabby” Table

July 14, 2008

Well, the table is finished and it looks fantastic.  In this final episode, John Hutchinson of Rose Valley Restorations in West Chester, PA explains the process that he, Kyle, and Bill followed to bring the table to this final condition. There is a luminescence to the color due to the shellac that John mixes himself [...]

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Video – Part III: Refinishing A Merklen Brothers “Shabby” Table

July 8, 2008

A quick update on the table’s progress in this video. It is fully stripped and sanded and the quartersawn Oak shows in all it’s bare glory. We select stain for the wood and paint for the griffins.
Video Part I and Part II – if you haven’t already seen them.

You can view the video [...]

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Video – Part II: Refinishing A Merklen Brothers “Shabby” Table

July 5, 2008

Here’s Part II of the Merklen Brothers table refinish project.  If you didn’t view the first Part yet, I recommend you watch it first, here.
In this episode, I’m in the shop of my favorite local furniture restoration business, Rose Valley Restorations, and we go through a battery of tests to determine the best approach to [...]

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The Victorian Humidor Project

June 16, 2008

Everyone needs at least one vice in their life to make things interesting and smoking cigars is one of mine. So what type of humidor would a Victorian Antique collector have? An antique quartersawn Oak humidor with tin lining would be the answer. The brass plaque on the top lid reads, “Personal”, [...]

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Video: Refinishing A Merklen Brothers “Shabby” Table

June 15, 2008

This will be the first of hopefully many video blog posts here on Rare Victorian in the future. I did end up rescuing the Merklen Brothers table from this previous post and I hope to capture the transformation on video for you.
You can view the video by using the player below or follow the [...]

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