You might remember my post entitled
"Who says the 18th century was dark and boring", in which I outlined my plan to recreate this c. 1700 - 1720 joined chest of drawers from Western Massachusetts.
 |
| photo from the Metropolitan Museum of Art |
I mentioned how colorful it would be when finished. Based on the dimensions, internal photos, and chemical analysis provided by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was able to build this model in Sketchup. I ordinarily wouldn't go to this trouble, but I wanted to see what it should look like before moving forward.
 |
| Iso view of dresser |
 |
| Side view of panel |
The ground painting of this piece is wildly poly-chromatic. Add in the faux graining, faux oystering on the sides, and the vine and floral motifs on the drawers and you have a wild piece. I love it.
I've been busy working on the front of the piece. Rip sawing out legs and stretchers before laying everything out. The trick to a piece like this is to lay out the joinery on all four legs simultaneously, as this will help you produce a square case. Here are a few pics of the tooling I used to produce this work.
 |
| Ripsawing with a vintage 8pt Disston |
 |
| Rough planing with my trust Mathieson fore plane |
 |
| Finish planing the stock with my shop built jointer plane |
 |
| The top and bottom stretchers fitted into their mortises, I am beginning the lay |
This project will be featured in detail in my upcoming book.
Getting there...!
ReplyDeleteI will happily work in shows of the tools when it makes sense and doesn't detract from my main reason for writing, which is the furniture itself. I will throw in tool-only pieces from time to time when it makes sense. Thanks Wiktor!
DeleteLooking forward to the vibrant paint job.
ReplyDeleteThanks Graham, me too. I hope it turns out as good as the one in my head!
Delete