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45" square oak table: style/age/origin input

MissHTML
10 years ago

I recently purchased this table but the owners weren't able to tell me much about it other than it was owned by their late aunt. It is 45" square with two leaves (expands to 69") the legs spread out when you add the leaves. It has egg and dart motifu just under the lip of the table and the top is solid wood (matching grain on underside) and not veneer. No marks that I can see to tell me who manufactured it or where it came from. Any insight would be very much appreciated.




Comments (9)

  • jemdandy
    10 years ago

    The construction of the casters on the legs will help with putting a date on this table. Those look to be originals. Casters are replaceable therefore can not always be relied upon for dating.

    The casters should be lubricated occasionally. Some folks wait until they squeek before lubing. In my opinion, one should wait that long.

    I like the table top.

  • lazy_gardens
    10 years ago

    1900-1930 Nice looking table. It was probably veneered on top over the planks when it was originally sold. What you see now is the wood plank base they put the veneer onto.

    Salvaging a peeling veneer by stripping it off and hoping there's good wood underneath happens a lot.

  • Stocky
    10 years ago

    Lazy , you're suggesting those planks are the base to what once had veneer on them ?
    I'm sorry , but I disagree with your statement 1000%.
    NOT A CHANCE , there was never veneer on top of those boards , the table was built as it is seen now .

    Nobody tries to peel veneer off in hopes of finding good wood underneath . Furniture wasn't built with "good" wood under the veneer . That's redundant .Why would you put good wood under even nicer veneer ?
    Furniture that is fabricated with veneer as the top surface is done with that purpose . Typically in this order
    1. A white wood ,most often Poplar as the "base" wood .
    2. A thin ,but thicker wood then the veneer which is referred to as the underlayment .
    3. The top wood is the veneer .

  • lazy_gardens
    10 years ago

    "Nobody tries to peel veneer off in hopes of finding good wood underneath"

    Lots of people, including me, were trying to salvage old furniture like this in the 1970s ... during the first round of the "Golden Oak" fad.

    I found a few that had damaged veneer over wood of the same species, usually oak. The butt-jointed boards give it strength, and are less liable to warp than broader boards, then a veneer over it spreads the fancy stuff thinly.

    http://www.harpgallery.com/library/veneer.htm says, "Around 1900, highly prized quarter-sawn or tiger oak was often veneered over regular cut solid oak."

  • Stocky
    10 years ago

    Well, ya cited one internet article , so it must be fact ...

  • MissHTML
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    The wheels are metal and rounded.

    The overall quality of the piece causes me to really doubt this was ever veneered. The wood is just *TOO* beautiful and original and whoever made the table took great efforts to match the grain from one plank to the next.

    I found it here in Salt Lake where it is the norm for a single piece of furniture to stay in a family for its entire life (I have a piano from 1906 that was in the same family until 2004 when my husband bought it for me along with a few stamped Stickley rockers..thanks to living in Utah we've found many beautiful things when families just are tired of looking at them and happy to part with them.)

    Additionally, after looking through all of my mother's antique books (she has been a dealer her whole adult life but couldn't tell me what style it was specifically, only able to tell me that it is American and from the early 1900's)...but I am still completely uncertain as to what specific "style" this would be called.

    Its as thought Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau had a child. The lines are strong but there is a delicateness to the details which is what is completely baffling me and all of my resources.

    If anyone has any input, I'm still listening.

    Thank you!

  • lazy_gardens
    10 years ago

    "its as though Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau had a child."

    It is very common to see blended styles. For every manufacturer out there on the bleeding edge of any style, creating pure Art Deco or whatever, there were dozens of them who would refresh an existing design with a few doodads from the latest style.

  • cold_weather_is_evil
    10 years ago

    Y'know? There was a time a century or so back that oak was NOT considered a finish wood. Don't judge yesterday's ethic with today's. The veneer supposition has merit.

    That said, if you have an oak skirt and oak legs and a crude clumsy awkward top, pretty much everything will be a guess, including the possibility of a rebuilt table. Nobody will be able to tell without getting up close in person.

  • peegee
    10 years ago

    Cold, I'm confused by your statement about oak not being considered a finished wood a century ago as Oak was very popular from the latter quarter of the 1800's through the early 1920's and even beyond, certainly the time period of the table.