WORK: Vol.1-No.51 - Tools for Working Wood

•.. -••-·A CARVED BUREAu.[Work-March 8, 1890.•..•:wooQf or if preferred asbeing less costly, boxwood,between which and theouter border of mahoganythe thin black and white-stl·in~ng m.ay be repeated.lt will be noticed that thestringings, -etc., must bemitred at the corners, butas they are very narrow nogreat difficulty ought tobe experienced in doingthis neatly. The same cannot,h owever, be said oflaymg them and the veneers,an operation which· might, perhaps, deter theamateur artisan from at-·tempting to form a Sheratonbureau unless explainedto him. But a.~ to give((({4J('(.{I))))Fig. 13.}()E•'>---( Fig. 14. Fig. 16.(':---__,........)\(Fig. 15.EFigs. 13-17.-Examples of DUferent Forms of Turned Spindles.anything like a full explanation would be comment, beyond saying that thoughto forestall an article on veneering, which articles of furniture when perfectly plainwill shortly appear in these pages, the might be worthy of regard, the same cannoviceis referred to it.not be said of much that was elaboratedEarly in the present century a markeddecadence in the artistic features of furbyfanciful decoration. At any rate, therewas no feature sufficient to characterise anniture is very perceptible. We have already epoch in furniture style, although here andnoticed this as evidenced in the later pro- there an enlightened designer might beductions of Sheraton, whose later works found whose works cannot be indiscrimimaybe taken as a sufficient illustration of na.tely ignored. Still, we may very well passthe debased taste which during h is short on to the present time.·career had set in. It is difficult to believe As a result of the modern general renaisthata man of his ability could possibly have sance in art, furniture soon feeiLng the in­'fallen so much under the influence of populn.r flucltce became more simple in characterfashion as to d esign some of his later works, than it h'ad been for many years previously.which he seems to have been conscious were U nder the guidance of such mcn·as the latenot so good as his earlier efforts. However, Sir Charles Eastlake, the se,·ere straight· 'vhether he originated the degraded style lines of the E arly English style became the·Or m erely followed the lead is beside the fashion. I must here point out Early.question. · There can, however, be no doubt English as popularly applied to furniturethat for fifty-or might the time not be is altogether a misnomer, at least, if we-extended to seventy ~-years from the begin- regard Early English architecture as thening of this century, our domestic furniture standard, for the two present no decorativewas possessed of few if any artistic features features in common. With more truth itwhich are deserving of perpetuation. might be called the Old English style, if byThe workmanship might be good-indeed old we mean the woodwork of, speaking.much ofit was good-but any pleasure which , roughly, the sixteenth and seventeenth cencouldbe experienced from this quality is 1 tnries. The term Early English is, however,lost in view.of the utterwant of any artisticmerit both in d ecorationand structural·design. Truly, so far.as beauty or sense of·ornamentation is con­·cerned it was a desolateage, and those whopay any attention to:such matters may wellbe thankful for the.great improvementwhich has taken placein recent years. Perhapsthe only class ofmen who have reasonto cast a longingglance backwards tothe good old times ofbad or no art aremanufactUI·ers and de­Hi,:Jn er;; of goods, sucha.s furnituret whi t:h n.reinfluenced by artistic1:onsiderations.Anythingthen seems as ifit served provided itwere florid enough ;but perhaps I amtreading on the toesof some elderly readerswho " can't abide themther~ .strjl.igh~ thi~~,"so..deai:St irom .furlilletMAHOGA NYFig. 21.- Alternative Modeor ftnllblng Ends.•Fig. 18.-Pa.rt of Inlaid Front.Fig. 20.'-Spinclled Guard.F:g.l9.-Knobat End ofSpindledGuard.cI(>-­('--_\(ca 1:opular one 1and aaapphed to furn1ture is row~ll und~rstood, that notwtthstandmgwriters haverep~te~lycalled attentionto Its maccuracy, it seenaas ~ho.ugh it would still remamm vogue, and it mayas well be retained here.. Without g?ing very deeplymto the subJect, let us thensee what alterations will beFig. 17. needed to turn our bureauinto an Early English one.'fhe prevailing characteristicsof this style beingstraight lines, it will atonce be perceived that in .our origmal we have italready, with perhaps thebeading round tbe edges ofthe drawer fronts omitted, and the mitredframing of the fall changed into an ordinarymortise and tenoned fra.me.But probably along with severity ·andgeneral plainness, scratched beads areequally associated in our minds with EarlxEnglish, not to mention spindles. We allknow how these were used a very few yearsag?· Spindles here, spindles th~re, andspmdles everywhere. ln moderatiOn theyare well enough, but really when th~ywere brought in so very freely and indiscrimiun.tely,one began to get a little tiredof them. I n the bureau, fortunately, thereis not the same temptation to use them inexcess a;; with many pieces of furniture, forthe only position in which they can beeither ornamental or serviceable will be ontop, where, in conjunction with top and.bottom rails, they will form a very suitableguard to prevent papers, etc., slipping off.The guard may b e either along the backalone or returned along .the ends to thefront. The latter will look better, but asthe work is done in the same manner, theonly difference being that there is a lit~]~more of it in one than the other, one descnptionwill serve for both. The illustration,IIIIL - - ~Figs. 22 and 23.-Top Rails of Spinclled. Guard. , .Fig. 20, gives a generalidea of the end of aspindlecl back guard,only without the returnpieces. Analysingthis It will be seen tol•consist of an end p1eceinto which are mortisedtwo straight railssupporting the spindles.These will look bett~ rif placed moderatelyclose toeach otherthan if with a ~tinterval between each,and two inches apartmay be considere