Oyster and plum pudding may audio like courses of a standard English dinner, but they are also descriptive phrases of wooden veneer styles. It looks only fitting since a lot English furniture depends seriously on the beautiful graining attained by the use of veneers. While the French furnishings sported elaborate ormolu mounts, the more reserved English cabinetmakers made the most of scale, proportion and the elaborate graining of veneers.
Veneers are skinny slices of wooden glued onto a household furniture carcass created of a cheaper and sturdier wooden. Utilizing a plentiful neighborhood wooden the place it wouldn’t be seen permits the very best use of far more costly figured wood on the exterior where it exhibits.
Usually, veneers had been hand minimize, restricting the thickness to about one/8″ thick. With the advent of the industrial revolution, machine reduce veneers could become thinner, one/sixteen” to one/32″, resulting in much more sheets of veneer for each tree. To support date a piece of veneered furnishings, take a look at the thickness of the veneer by opening a drawer and seeking the place the veneer satisfies the carcass on the back again of the drawer front.
The splendor of veneer graining is dependent on two factors, 1st, exactly where the veneer is minimize from the tree and 2nd, how it is used to the carcass. For example, Crotch veneer is minimize from the fork of a tree trunk or in which a huge department joins the trunk. The grain typically seems as a pattern resembling a V-form or a cluster of plumes, when witnessed in mahogany it could be referred to as flame grain mahogany or crotch mahogany, in walnut it is crotch walnut. Burl (or as the English say Burr) veneer is taken from a wart-like, irregular expansion on a tree in which the fibers are not directional. clip on veneers is a modest, rounded, extremely grained pattern and is most frequently noticed in walnut. Plum Pudding Mahogany has a very contrasted grain of elongated shapes reminiscent of plums. Bird’s Eye maple arrives from a deformity in the tree, considerably like burl walnut, but rather of a expansion on the outside of the tree, it is caused by indentions into the growth rings. When the veneers are lower, the dents type a lot of modest spherical designs. Oyster veneer is discovered most typically in walnut, occasionally in yew, and are “slices” taken crosswise from the limb of a tree. Resembling oyster shells, the tiny pieces are fitted collectively with exceptional intricacy to totally include the carcass. This approach was perfected for the duration of the reign of William and Mary in the late 17th century.
Marquetry is an additional technique perfected for the duration of this interval, using veneers of distinct woods. Parquetry is the identical method making use of geometric types. The English also recognized by deliberately chopping off the tops of oak trees, the trunk fibers grew denser building a swirling grain similar to burl, this veneer is referred to as pollard oak.
Veneers can be applied to a carcass in a assortment of ways. The grains may possibly kind distinct styles relying on exactly where the veneer is reduce from the tree, but consecutively cut veneers will have nearly similar grain designs. If the slices are utilized remaining edge of a single to the right edge of the other, they are slip-matched. veneers, like fanning a deck of cards. When applied left edge to left edge, they are e-book-matched veneer, like opening a guide.
Diamond styles, which are often seen on the sides or tops of chests, can be formed with straight lower veneers by matching facet-to-facet, and best to base in a quadrant effect. The place the bottom of one particular veneer satisfies the prime of one more is referred to as a butt match.
Another indication of a fine upper body is how the drawer fronts are veneered. If ebook matched, it is critical to observe if the grain also flows from the 1st drawer to the last in a steady motion.
For all the beauty of veneered furnishings, 1 need to know it may well just take far more servicing. As Jim Horne of HKH, Inc., a restorer of good antiques, notes, “Most folks maintain their residences as well dry. With the drastic humidity changes in this city, the main lumber (carcass) expands and deal at a distinct fee than the veneer causing the veneer to pop or arrive free”. A single way this can be rectified is setting up a humidifier.