The Art of a Master Cabinentmaker

"The devil is in the details", we've all heard that saying and here's an example of how it applies to a couple pieces of furniture. There is nothing finer (to me) than a well-done hand-made piece, and it transcends the simple utility of furniture and becomes a work of art in its own right, the medium becomes wood rather than canvas or marble is all. Here are two pieces I commissioned John Buchanan to make for store inventory. I had bought back some estate sale items I had sold in the 90's and can no longer get (due to severing ties with the original builders), but the base forms were good so we copied them as they were traditional New England forms from the late 1700's.

The first item up is a Massachusetts Tea Table. There are very rare, and VERY expensive (6 figures) as period antiques. There are a number of reproductions on the market and our original was from Eldred Wheeler, sold by me back around 1990 or so. As you can see in the photos, its a good form, but there are a few glaring faults. For one, the board set is terrible for tiger maple, there is virtually no 'stripe' and you can also see the legs are very plain as they were done of ordinary hard rock maple by an outside supplier and assembled onto the frame at Eldred Wheeler. This was a constant issue with that company back when I was a dealer for them - they simply bought lumber from the cheapest supplier and frequently their tiger maple was 'dead'. Construction was high quality and finish good, but the piece has a slight commercial look to it with the sourced legs and unimaginative top molding. With John's re-creation you can immediately see the difference in the board set, its far superior. The finish is deeper, and richer. The legs are handmade of the same wood set, and the top mold hand-cut as well. The scroll work on the skirt is more imaginative and keeping with the form resulting in a heirloom piece that will give its owner much pride in ownership for a lifetime, and generations to come.

The Buchanan Tea Table is $ 2,350
The 90's era Eldred Wheeler Tea Table is $ 1,150

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More ....

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And the Tilt Top Candlestand. Copied from a 12 year old Mark Emirzian piece (also from the Estate Sale), this has a far better board set, we slimmed the center urn turning down to be more correct, put a bit more meat in the legs and change the detail work at the bottom of the base to real carving rather than a simple router tip relief.

Buchannan Piece: $ 1,195
Emerzian Piece: $ 895

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I know this is an older thread, but was browsing Etsy & saw Eldred Wheeler has a shop on Etsy...really?? Strange, but I guess after all the business issues they've had, maybe not?

Eldred Wheeler has been a company in desperation mode for the past 20 years. They have died and resurfaced more times than Elvis.