Rare Victorian Est. 2008 · The Curator's Archive
Research No. 563

Elijah Galusha Rococo Revival Sideboard

Originally published

RococoSideboardElijah Galusha

Elijah Galusha Rococo Revival Sideboard
Elijah Galusha Rococo Revival Sideboard

Continuing with my series of photos taken at the Rensselaer County Historical Society in Troy, NY, I present several of a sideboard by Elijah Galusha made in the Rococo style.

Make note of the mirror-image carved foliage in the gadrooning. You will see it again in a parlor table that I will be posting photos of in future. It may be a decorative element (the particular carving design and not just the concept) that we can hold out to help identify Galusha pieces. More photos of the sideboard are below.

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3 comments

  1. VictorianJunkie
    Three questions: 1) What is the wood? I can't make it out through the old/dark finish. 2) Do you think the upper shelf supports were originally angled? Maybe it is just the picture, but the bracket/shelf juncture look a little awkward. 3) Is there a name for that undulating ribbon/like trim at the top of the base skirt? I have often seen it on rococo-style furniture. Phil
  2. John Werry
    Phil: 1) Rosewood 2) I see what you're saying - it's almost as if it was chopped off - not sure. 3) I've heard it referred to ripple or wave moulding. I was trying to publish an article here on RV about that style moulding from another author, but the email exchanges on arranging it ran dry. I love the stuff.
  3. woodwright
    I too love the ripple moldings seen on Rococo & Gothic furniture. I have seen a lot of new and old machinery read tons of articles on woodworking, old books, etc. I've been a cabinetmaker for 26 years, and can make almost anything. But I've never seen anything that gave me a clue how ripple molding was made. I've thought about it a lot - but don't even have a good guess. Probably used some kind of a stylus that followed a pattern sort of like a carving duplicator. I'm 100% positive it was made by machine - not hand carved. It's always so perfectly spaced and uniform. Extremely hard to do by hand and make it perfect and uniform - also no tool marks like you would see in hand carved work - it would be incredibly time consuming and expensive to hand carve it. It was not made with a rotary cutter like a shaper, router, table saw, etc. - the inside corners where the pattern repeats is always sharp and crisp - it would be rounded to match the radius of the cutter if done by a rotary cutter. If anyone knows more about how it was made, or the machine that made it - I'd love for them to chime in and share what they know about it. woodwright

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