Wood Identification Part II: Figure and Texture
Having discussed context, density and color, we now are down to the last two properties of wood to help made a positive identification.
Having discussed context, density and color, we now are down to the last two properties of wood to help made a positive identification.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – Probably the third most frequently asked question about a piece of furniture, after “how old is it?” and “what’s it worth?” is “what is it made of?”
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – In my line of work I spend a lot of quality time with my second favorite nonhuman companion, my computer. (My favorite, of course, is the Harley.) I am on pretty good terms with my computer, but occasionally one of us needs an attitude adjustment and that’s when I call on my friend Bob, who is a computer tech.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – In the last 50 years or so veneer has gotten a bad rap in the furniture trade. Somehow, back in the 1960s and 1970s veneer became associated with, and in many cases actually blamed for, some of the absolute garbage that was being manufactured at the time. But it probably goes back farther than that. That attitude is a holdover from the Depression era that is lodged in the minds of the children of the time. They remember some of the furniture their parents bought back in those dark days.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – A while back I presented the second most often asked question regarding older and antique furniture. That question: “Will I destroy the value if I refinish it?” I chipped in my two cents on this subject at that time, trying to soften the Antiques Roadshow hard-line attitude about original finishes by applying what we called in the 1980s “situational ethics.”
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – Few of us are probably doing what we thought we would be doing 30 years ago. Things happen along the way and unforeseen turns make life interesting if not always predictable. Sometimes one of the things that can make an older or antique piece of furniture more interesting is the value added by a little bit of eccentric knowledge about where the piece came from and how it came to exist.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – When field cut lumber, recently converted from timber, finally reached the 18th century cabinetmaker’s shop, his main tasks were to cut and shape the wood to his own design and to smooth the surface. He and his journeymen and apprentices accomplished these tasks with an amazingly small array of hand tools, some of which would be familiar to us today and some that many of us would have no idea how to employ.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – One of my jobs as a reporter when I cover an antiques show or sale naturally is to ask exhibitors for details of their merchandise, take photos and record comments. But I also sometimes have the opportunity to pester attendees who don’t know me and to whom I do not introduce myself.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – In classical music one of the most important notations in the score is the symbol for “rest.” It denotes the pause that refreshes, the golden silence. It tells the musician to take a break, catch a breath, skip a beat, just stop. It may be for just one beat or it may be for a few measures or for an entire passage. The composer uses the rest for many reasons, but primarily to emphasize a point or provide a space for a seamless transition of direction or tempo.
CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. – Once, as my teenage daughter started to leave the house on a chilly evening, I remarked that her attire might leave something to be desired. In fact, I told her she was going to be cold. She calmly looked me in the eye and replied, “You have to sacrifice something for the look.”