The maintenance and keeping of antique furniture is an imprecise art, but some principles hold true. The less the finish is tampered with as well as also the more repairs have been entrusted to your conservative expert, the higher the value the piece retains. It isn’t always possible to recognize or recreate the coatings or even the contractors of 19th-century cabinetry. Knowing the work average of the time where the furniture was created provides a foundation for determining how to restore and protect a cabinet, table or chair.
Cabinetry and Joinery
In the 19th century, some fine furnishings were made of laminated timber, and experimentation with manipulating timber produced some significant developments in cabinetry.The European Thonet factory perfected the method of shaping wood in curves, and bentwood chairs were highly prized, particularly in the latter half of the century. Standard construction techniques for hand-building still relied on mortise-and-tenon and dovetail joints, where timber was cut to slot to adjacent pieces like a mystery, to create a sturdy bond. Near the close of the century, machine joinery put great wood furniture within the reach of middle class buyers. Materials adapted for widespread use in furniture-making included cast iron, individually molded and forged for garden benches and bed frames, and papier-mache — heavily lacquered and gilded screens, seats, tables, even bedroom collections — created from recycled paper pulp and glue.
Faking It
Wood graining was a very popular faux finish which simulated the characteristics of hard-to-obtain or much more desirable forests. Mahogany, a timber introduced to European and American furniture-makers during Colonial-era trade, was distinctive and durable, and a lot of graining aimed in a faux mahogany finish. To get the look, orange-brown oil paints have been combined with hand-traced red pigment lines. Later in the century, brushes and combs were manipulated to accelerate the process, and other wood grains — cherry, cherry, rosewood — were used to highlight architectural features or faux paint an entire chair or cabinet.
Beeswax and Polissoirs
Nice furniture could be completed with different natural, not synthetic, coatings for much of the century, but the favored surface was beeswax. Hard blocks of beeswax were rubbed over a finished piece and burnished to the timber. Rather than the usual cloth, cabinetmakers used snugly bound dried reeds or grasses, like horsetail or straw. Because the applied wax was rubbed, it melted and warmed to the pores of the timber until a great coat covered the piece. Then the wax was buffed with coarsely woven linen and finally with a flannel or other soft cloth. A polissoir is a powerful French tool for rubbing in a beeswax finish. It is a bound clump of grasses, soaked in liquified wax, allowed to dry, and then rubbed into the timber, waxing and burnishing the finish to a polish in 1 step. French polishing is just another conventional technique which was used to obtain a high gloss from a mix of shellac, denatured alcohol and pumice hand-rubbed to the timber.
Inlays and Fourishes
Carved, laminated timber framed formal parts of furniture manufactured from the well-known workshops in lower Manhattan from the 19th century. Case products — cabinets, dressers and cabinets — featured elaborate marquetry. Ornate bits, including sofas, chairs and table legs, were decorated with shells, scrolls, flowers, masks as well as other ancient motifs. Duncan Phyfe, one of the most illustrious American furniture-makers, created fine wood cabinetry which produced from archaeological finds of the day to reveal Greek, Egyptian and Roman lotuses, lyres, and shields. Chair and cupboard legs had paw feet, were inscribed with reeds, or finished in eagles gripping globes. For a cost, a occasional table can be inlaid with a mother-of-pearl a chessboard.