Late 1880's Oak Dresser Cabinet

Let me introduce you to this storied Old Gentleman. As we expect, he's got an interesting story to tell. My customer explained how he grew up with this piece. It was in his grandfather's home and later his own home. 

My customer explained how it once had a framed mirror. It sat atop the cabinet. It was integrated with a miniature and probably ornate little set of oak drawers. Given the hand carvings around the edges of the main dresser (see insert pic below), I suspect the little cabinet and drawers were similarly very attractive.

Super hand carvings

When you look closely at these pic of the top, below, you can see the doweling holes that supported it, it's mirror, and the mirror's frame. I asked my customer where these items might be? He had no idea where they went. My suspicion: they sit handsomely, now albeit stand-alone, on someone's dresser--a very attractive little jewelry box, perhaps?

Ugly stain and missing cabinet' shadow & holes

 
At first I was hesitant to do a complete refinish on this special  antique (Charles Eastlake). (Remember the debate and discussion, "if you touch it, then it's no longer an antique." ) But then as I began the discovery process, starting with a more detailed inspection of the top. I realized this handsome gentleman boasts still other little secrets. Let's begin with the ugly stain we can see on top of the cabinet. 

Green stuff behind the removed pull

Then, notice the curious green stain behind the third-drawer's right pull. That tell-tale green was a reaction to a lubricant I used to  release the pull's attaching screw from the drawer face. It was rusted into the hole! A closer look at the case told me the screw had been corroded from a leak of some kind. The leak had happened on top of the dresser, then dripped down the font, right side of the dresser--including the frame, all the drawers, and the below-cabinet door below, too! It's a blue-gray stain. I've often seen it happen when wood tannin reacts to an oxidizing agent (like water borne acetates). Something, maybe wine(?), pooled on top and then dripped down the dresser to the floor below. It left a dark streak down the right front of the cabinet as it cascaded to the floor. 

Check-out the stripped cabinet pic (left). Note the circle around each of the drawer pull holes. These tell us the existing drawer pulls are not original. In fact, the originals were metal, probably solid brass or a brass overlay. They were BIG. The larger ones were 3" in diameter and the smaller ones were 2" in diameter and "pointed" around the perimeter. They left these these distinctive markings where the points lay against the drawers faces.  

Finally. I realized this handsome guy had experienced his own face-lift some fifty or sixty years ago. So, mine would not be the first. The cabinet was originally  completed (1880's-90's) in a classic clear varnish that yellowed as he matured. (Yup, we all do our own brand of "yellowing" with age, don't we!). Then, when this frustrating spill took place to stain the top and the front of this handsome guy, "Oh my, what to do now! 

See the crazing in the finish and the circles around the drawer pull hole also the green oxidation of the pull's fastener

The answer my customer's family member chose came in the form of a complete re-varnish of the cabinet.  A dark brown varnish was chosen to cover over the original finish. For whatever reason the ornate cabinet hardware was removed and discarded (?). Oak pulls were chosen and similarly finished, then they were placed where the brasses had been. The new brown varnish overlay helped obscure the cabinet's stains, and it somewhat covered the circular "points" where the brasses had been for the previous 70-80 years. In this enlarged pic, if you look closely, you can see a cosmetic cover-up was also used. The varnish didn't fill in the crazing marks of the older finish underneath, so it appeared as though the dark top finish was original. See the pic (above).


My customers chose a lighter finish color. It is darker than the original finish, but lighter than the previous re-cover. They were comfortable letting the piece tell its own story. I tightened up and re-glued some structural members inside the case, and then I gently (chemically) hand-stripped the cabinet to the bare wood. The stains and wear marks of the years were painful evidence of the years bumps and abuses, but the unfinished state merely promised a fun new future vitality. It'll proudly wear its history, albeit a little toned down. (Don't we all wish that, huh!) We looked for some LARGE reproductions of the Eastlake 3" brasses, but finally settled on what we suspect are smaller versions of the same "pointed" original circular brass pulls. I was able to bleach some of the dark stain out of the drawer and cabinet fronts, but the stain--and the stories--remain to those who know what and where to look for them. 

When the cabinet was re-varnished after the spill its color was darkened, the pulls were changed, and curiously all the keyholes were filled with a stain-matching dark resin! They were still there, buried, and they were no longer functional. So, one of my tasks was to carefully remove this fill material from each lock and then clean and lubricate each one. They all work now and we found a working key through an area antique dealer. Listen carefully and you can almost hear the cabinet's grateful sigh of pent-up r-e-l-i-e-f!

So, there it is. It's been gently restored to past glory and it happily offers some fun contemporary tales, too!

That's Wood Talkin for the New Year 2016. Happy New Year!