MDMD Fun with Furniture

[Judy Panetta]

Furniture-Saw Buck Table

The humble saw buck table:
http://www.windsorworkshop.com/pages/page16a.htm


And about Lancaster county...not just about the plainness of the Amish folk:
http://lanclio.org/highlights/articles/lanccohistory.htm

This is a history of the county, giving a pretty good feeling for the
conflicts that arose during the eighteenth century. It was a wild untamed
wilderness as far as the Philadelphians were concerned. Not much about the
furniture except that the furniture makers developed a name for themselves
for their creations "in the Philadelphia style."

Furniture-Sinister card table

"...nor much mahogany, excepting a sinister and wonderful card table which
exhibits the cheaper sinusoidal Grain known in the trade as Wand'ring Heart,
causing an illusion of Depth into which for years children have gaz'd as
into the illustrated Pages of Books...along with so many hinges, sliding
Mortises, hidden catches, and secret compartments that neither the Twins nor
their sister can say they have been to the end of it."

A Federal Style table:
http://www.trocadero.com/oneofakind/items/10709/item10709.html

...although Pynchon's table is probably older and imported or belonged to a
relative/ancestor. Cherry and Pine being local woods, mahogany was not
generally imported for furniture making. In woods...there is heart wood and
sap wood. The speculation around here is that Wand'ring Heart is an instance
where the heart wood "wandered" into the sap wood creating a random grain.
This would not be the even grained African mahogany that Sheridan would have
preferred. JeremyO...you're a woodworker...ever come across this term?

"Sinister" implies a style less clean that the example above, but the basic
idea is the same. This is a table that sits against the wall. When used as a
card table, the top flips over and pivots. There are all manner of cubbies
and compartments for to stow one's cards, game pieces, or love letters. The
number of little spaces is a result of the structural design.

Wood samples:
http://www.woodmosaic.com/encyclopedia/samples.html

Chinese Sofa:

Could not find a single picture of a Chinese Sofa. Let me attempt to
describe it...about the size of a love seat, upholstered, with a framework
overhead creating a sort of cove. This framework is draped is such a way
that the cushions are framed. This drape can extend across the front of the
sofa making a secluded spot. The kids must have loved it.