Occasionally I am asked to repair or restore antiques. Usually, I avoid restoration work since it involves an enormous amount of time and significant materials for which the client does not want to pay for nor has an appreciation for the amount of work involved, plus it is virtually impossible to guess what is involved until the process ensues.
On this particular project, the table was a family table used by a family of six. The parents are now deceased and naturally the sentimental attachments are there… besides the client is a friend.
The table is a Federal Style Drop Leaf originally made between 1800 and 1841 (according to my research). More than likely the table was made in Richmond, Williamsburg or Norfolk, Virginia. There was no maker’s make. According to the inscription on the underside, the table had been given to my client’s father, William Smith, back in 1972 by the widow of Joseph Tabb who owned Summerville Plantation in Gloucester, Virginia. It served as the Smith family dining table for decades. During its journies, it had been moved a lot and laid in storage. The table was stained with a number of circular black stains and it had hundreds of scratches and deep gouges. The table skirt was missing veneer. Truthfully, it was pretty beat up and I wondered what I had gotten myself into.
The top has a flame pattern in the grain and it was thought to be walnut or possibly mahogany. I photographed it and sent it far and wide around the globe and the unanimous consensus was that it was indeed walnut. Much to my surprise, it’s not.
The whole top (and drop leaf) is made of a single slab of Osage Orange. AWESOME! The tree it was milled from must have been huge.
The largest one I have ever seen still lives at Santee Farm in Corbin, Virginia and is said to be about 300 years old and is in Virginia’s historical register as the oldest known Osage Orange tree and is about five feet wide. On this particular tabletop, the tree must have been at least 8′ wide and probably older than Moses. Not a far stretch when considering Capt. John Smith arrived in 1607 to establish the Jamestown Colony and Fredericksburg was considered “frontier” in 1720.
As written in colonists’ journals, the trees were massive and one could easily navigate a horse-drawn carriage through the woods. What a site that must have been. The Indians had practiced controlled burns in the forest for millennia to eliminate underbrush (preventing enemies from sneaking up) plus they possessed no steel axes. Fallen limbs were used for firewood. It was said that a squirrel could venture from the Atlantic to the Mississipi without touching the ground. Don’t know that to be a fact but the old growth canopy must have been fantastic.
How I determined that it was Osage Orange wood began after the stripping process. The top had numerous coats of shellac and some crude attempts at filling the gouges. When the stripping process was complete I was a bit perplexed at what type of wood it was. It had the grain pattern of walnut but the wood certainly was not. Dragging a card scraper over it produced a fine orange dust. Odd. It had to be a North American hardwood but nothing I had ever worked with. It wasn’t typical and the slab was huge. So what was it?
Well, after a lot of research and looking at a ton of photos I was certain that it was Osage Orange. I even ordered some Osage Orange sawdust on Amazon, and sure enough, it was an exact match. Osage Orange is named after the native Osage tribe of American Indians that prized the wood for making bows. The tight grained wood posses properties that when dry remains flexible and is impervious to decay or rot. The “orange” part comes from the fruit it bears that is a bright lime green orange sized sphere. The wood is still prized for fence posts today since they seem to last forever.
The rather bland looking naked wood reacts to mineral spirits in an amazing way. It instantly transforms to a beautiful reddish brown and the grain patterns explode. Simply stunning.
The black rings were a nuisance and looked bad. I treated them with oxalic acid and they faded away after several applications. The lighter scratches were lifted using water and a hot iron. The deeper gouges were filled with clear epoxy resin and planed flush. The tops were then hand sanded.
The drop leaf had a very faint 12″ long split. Two walnut bow-ties were installed on the underside to brace the split, and it was also filled with epoxy resin.
The legs are made of walnut as was the veneer. The frame is poplar and pine. The frame and legs were all loose and needed stabilizing as did the frame corners. Dowels were installed everywhere, pieces were reglued, and it is now rock solid.
The remaining walnut veneer was removed and replaced. The legs were refinished using #000 steel wool and mineral spirits. Everything was finished with several coats of Danish oil, then top-coated with wax, then buffed.
Note: there was no stain was applied anywhere.
All the handwrought hinges were restored.
Now it’s restored to its original beauty. Hopefully, it will last another 200 years.
In the shop:
In natural light (much better):
It was an interesting yet very time-consuming project (it took about 80 hours total), four times longer than what I originally estimated. While working on it I couldn’t help but wonder about the craftsmen of yesteryear that built it and the stories that table could tell from the people who sat around it.
Here are two pics of the table in our client’s home:
~ Peter
Feel free to leave a comment
WOW! Amazing the amount of work that goes into something like this. I dare say if this post of yours goes viral, you are going to be turning down a boatload of restoration work!! The table is absolutely gorgeous now! Hard to believe the transformation. Maybe the client would send you a photo of the table in use — for inclusion in your blog?
Hi Anna, thanks for the kind words. As I mentioned in the post, people have no idea how much time it takes to do the job correctly, especially with an old treasure like this. I would consider more restoration work as long as people don’t want it done cheap. Feel free to pass this link on.
Good idea. I will need to contact my client for some pics. No doubt it would be better seen “in use” than the shop or lawn pics. 🙂
Great job Peter! Nice commentary and photo’s too. This should be good for another generation or two.
Great to have you visit Mitch. Thanks for the kind words. I sure hope so.
I can only imagine the joy you and your client experienced when you saw the beautifully restored treasure! Well worth the time and effort, indeed.
Shelly, thanks for your visit and your kind words. Glad you brought that aspect up. The look of happiness from a client, the dropped jaw, the tears, and the “oh my” are extra compensation which is priceless in my book.
Peter – I hit the jackpot asking you to refinish this beat up old family table of mine. You turned a cygnet into a swan and I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I am with the end result. Your workmanship far exceeded all my expectations. Thank you to infinity!
“The Client”… I love it. 🙂
Thanks for your most kind words. I am humbled. Thanks for trusting me with your treasure. I know how much it means to you and is why I put the effort into it.
When you came to collect it, the look on your face was priceless. 🙂
Thanks for the “in home” pics. I will add them to the post.
OMG! The end result is a masterpiece. Thank you for posting the before, during, and after photos. It is unbelievable what you did with that old treasure. Further, it is amazing that Osage Orange is the wood. Any idea if there are others like it? If there are how many would know if it’s Osage Orange? Few, I would venture to guess.
Thanks for the kind words Michael. It surprised me too. Lol. I have no idea if there are others. One gentleman, I communicated with up in New England, Maine I think, who specializes in antique furniture restoration, suggested it may be a “one-off” in other words a one of a kind because he has refinished/restored many of these tables over the decades and has never seen one with an Osage Orange top. Further, they would be difficult to identify since I imagine most would think them walnut or mahogany until such time they were stripped bare. For the record, I know little about antiques.
We can be fairly certain that this is only one half of a “banquet” table and that a “sister” table to this one was made at the same time. Take a look at this table’s leaf edge in the very first photo in this article. There are five “female” groves that would accommodate an opposing table leaf with “male” parts. My mission: Find said sister table.
Excellent point… the “sister table”. Duh… I should have remembered that. 🙂 Thinking about it some more, what about the extra leaves?
The sister table is probably a book match to the flame pattern that you possess. I’d use that fingerprint as your search. Also, the leg and skirt design.
Wow, just wow. I echo what the other here have stated. What an amazing transformation. Well done. I loved the history behind it all. Thanks for sharing. I will from now on view antique furniture in a different light.
Thanks for the kind words Josh. I don’t pretend to know anything about antique furniture. It was an interesting journey for me too. I too look at them differently now too.
There is a monster Osage orange on Lamb’s Creek Road that I’ll hope to get permission to measure & take pics of. It still bears fruit. Oops, it may be one road down…anyway it is HUGE.
Always loved the banquet design….so serviceable in it’s day…still is!
Need to party at G.’s & use her treasure. L.S.
Thanks for the visit Laura-Stuart. I’d love to see those pics of that old tree.
What I learned about that 6-legged design is that after dinner, the tables were removed to the outer walls with after dinner cordials, leaves stored away, thus the room was available for dancing. What a scene that must have been.
I echo what the others have written. That table is beautiful. You did a masterful job Peter. I hope that your client finds the sister table. That would be fantastic.
Just out of curiosity, what is a table like that worth?
Thanks Charles. Me too. Much like finding a needle in a haystack but not impossible. 🙂
Good question. I recently saw an episode of “Antiques Roadshow” and there was a similar walnut table (different leg style) and it was valued at $10,000-12,000. This table could very well be worth much more since it is unique.
Can’t express how stunning that finished OO grain is. Really masterful job, Peter.
I came to gawk at the table, but I was surprised to learn something from the origin message underneath. I live about 3 miles from the town of Tabb, VA on the peninsula south of Gloucester. I assumed the Tabb family were prominent Tidewater plantation era folks but knew nothing about them, and there don’t seem to be any living in the area now. This fills in some gaps. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words Steve.
This area and its history amaze me. You are a stone’s throw from Jamestown where it all started.
Not only are your restorations absolutely stunning, but the stories behind the “Beasts before the Beauty” are so compelling and informative. Have you ever thought of inviting a woodworking class from a local HS to come soak up some of your vast knowledge and impeccable skills? I’m positive you would inspire future generations to carry on the traditions of the past. You have such an articulate impassioned gift for explaining, documenting and sharing these incredible stories and striking masterful works of art.
Cath, Thank you for your beautiful and kind words. I am humbled.
That’s a great idea about inviting future woodworkers. I will pursue it.