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.