A Tale of Two Chests

[drcollie]

The primary reason that I began this forum was to educate people that had an interest in fine furniture, not as a sales tool for my store. To that end, from time to time I like to do a compare and contrast when I can and help educate folks on what makes an exceptional piece vs. a good piece. As they say "The Devil is in the Details" and its those details we are going to explore.

I have no axe to grind or agenda to promote. Both these suppliers I am going to compare and contrast have been building for me for a long time, and they are friends of mine as well. Still, there are differences in the end product and this gives me an opportunity to point them out for collectors and consumers.

Furniture is about form and execution. A small nuance one way or the other can affect the way a piece turns out. When done correctly and precisely, there is balance in the overall piece. When an element is off slightly - as you are about to see - the overall look and style is not as pleasing to the eye. Structurally these pieces are identical, both using solid wood (Tiger Maple as the Primary, Poplar as the Secondary) and both are aniline-dyed finishes completed with Horton Brasses of CT. The Treharn chest is made in Ohio, the Buchanan chest in Virginia. Both will last for several hundred years because they have time-honored construction joinery and proper woods.

J.L. Treharn is a Family-Owner and Operated business with probably (20) or so employees and I have sold their products for over 25 years now. At any given time there are probably (40) of their pieces in my store. They use a combination of machines and CNC routers, and handcrafting to achieve their look. Good folk to deal with, they always stand behind what they sell and build in small volume production runs.

John Buchanan is what we call a Benchmade Cabinentmaker. One-man, one piece at a time on his workbench. He is an artist and a historian of furniture, with a keen eye and has the talent to build anything of wood to a high level. You may think that means he's considerably more costly, but he's really not as there is precious little in overhead and operations in what he does. I use him almost extensively for all our custom work as well.

These are a pair of Four Drawer Chippendale Chests in Tiger Maple. Of similar size, these are always a good seller in my store. The Treharn chest arrived three weeks ago, the Buchanan chest came in today.

First off, in tiger maple the figure of the chest is everything. Right away, you will notice the Buchanan chest has much nicer lumber in it (though they will vary from piece to piece) and wider boards as well. When making reproduction furniture, you want the widest and most highly figured lumber you can get. That alone will make the Buchanan chest the first to sell to whomever walks in the store seeking one of these, the price variance between the two is less than 10 %.

Next, lets look at some of the design details. When viewed head-on, you will notice the Treharn piece has thicker horizontal rail styles (the wood between the drawers) and a very thick head piece above the top drawer. Style points to Buchanan for a more balanced, pleasing look based on the thinner styles.

Dovetails on the Buchanan piece are cut by hand, an measured out to start and end on a pin. The Treharn ones are cut in a jig, and like all dovetails made in that manner they don't always end on a pin and tend to be same size whereas handcuts will be wider and measured. Both are equally as strong, but the style and execution go to Buchanan.

Top molding around the piece. One may not often study this, but the best moldings have thin details to them rather than thick curves and lands. Thin-edged ones are more difficult to make as well, with more 'breakouts' on the routers so when you do thicker ones you have less material loss. The Buchanan molding is superior.

The foot of each piece is nicely done on both. One is a Dovetailed Bracket Foor, the other a Curved Ogee. Both are correct to the form, though the Ogee foot is considered a bit more difficult to execute.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed this compare and contrast and develop your 'eye' to look for details when you're out shopping.

[drcollie]

[AZJoe]

Very informative post Duane. It is nice to see the details side by side. The price is really not all that bad either.

I may be contacting you in the coming months to have a piece made. I want to get something nice to put in my front foyer, under a niche where I am going to put a mirror, or piece of artwork. If I found something I liked, would Mr. Buchanan be able to make something in a similar style?

How does Council's products compare with these 2 in terms of build quality? I notice(at least by looking at their site) their case goods are pretty pricey.

Again, great thread!

[aaron]

I have a couple of Buchanan pieces and a couple of Treharn pieces (more than a couple if you count chairs - I have posted pictures if you look in the resource gallery), all via Duane. The Treharn pieces I have were all made with much nicer tiger maple than in the example above - I expect that there's some "luck of the draw" involved. They do a nice ogee foot on pieces that offer an ogee foot, and Buchanan makes a nice bracket base. (Nicer, I think, with the hand cut dovetails.) If you have friends who do woodworking, at least if they're anything like mine, they'll make a beeline to the Buchanan piece. It's not that the Treharn pieces aren't nice, but Buchanan's work seems to inspire an awed combination of "I could make that" and, "No, actually, I'm nowhere near that good."

[drcollie]

If its made of wood, we can make it. From simple to complex, we can build it. Right now John is working on a massive triple pedestal table based on a Baker piece that was too small for what the customer wanted. We took the design (a double pedestal) and expanded it to a triple. We're making it for far less that what Baker wanted for a custom and we're making it BETTER, too. Baker uses MDF under its veneer, we're using a product called "Apple Board" a 16-ply laminate that costs 5x as much as MDF. Why? Because we know that if someone spills a glass of water on that table top and it rolls into the edge of the veneer and finds a way in, it will swell and cause a bubble in the veneer, or cause the veneer to lift. Apple board won't do that. Would the customer ever know that? No ... but we know it, so we do it right, even though we keep about $ 500 more in building material cost if we used MDF, not gonna do it.

Shipping is difficult on these fine, single piece goods however. I guess its actually not so much difficult as expensive.

Councill is some of the finest PRODUCTION-made furniture you can buy. Its impressive. But it cannot compete with Artisan Benchmade if you have a woodworker that is at the top of his craft. Those prices in the web are full MSRP. Reduce by about 50% for a realistic price.

Agreed on wood figure! The Treharn Chest in this comparison is weaker than most of what they produce.

[organic_smallhome]

They're both gorgeous. I prefer the Treharn feet, but with the Buchanan wood. It is amazing, however, how little price difference there is.

[Danw99]

Very nice post, I really like the side-by-side pointing out the differences.

[Marjflowers]

Wow! This is quote an education!!!! The furniture I'm most familiar with is hand crafted in the county where I grew up, and I've always loved it, perhaps because I wasn't familiar with much else other than Ethan Allen. Also there's the sentimental factor of the connection between our two families. But looking at your post, it's very clear that in the features you point out, my furniture more closely resembles the Treharn, which is lovely. But the Buchanan -- wow!!!! And with the prices you quote, with the 50 percent off, the Buchanan is roughly the same price as a comparable piece, or maybe a bit less expensive!!!!!!

I'm committed to buying three pieces here in Kentucky this year, and I'm very satisfied with that choice. But next year's project is going to get a piece that will serve as a bookcase/TV stand. And I'm definitely going to be thinking about a Buchanan piece. How proud would I be to own something that fine?!?

I love reading your posts, and I am learning so much!!'

[ConnecticutYankee]

Very good post about heirloom quality furniture. Both will last a persons lifetime and then become the subject of probate. The difference to me is that the Treharn will be sold at the estate auction and the Buchanan will be fought over by the heirs.