Boston Chippendale Blockfront Chest

[Robert LaPlaca]

This particular chest was modeled after a chest featured in the book Boston Furniture of the 18th Century on page 81. This chest is built from South American Mahogany that was sourced from Irion Lumber, the secondary lumber is Yellow Poplar. The chest features four graduated drawers that were carved from 12/4 mahogany stock the chest is 35 1/2"h x 21 9/16"d x 40 w. The piece was dyed with a very diluted Lockwood Cuban Mahogany water based dye, the finish is Waterlox Original. The brasses were sourced from Londonderry Brasses.. Was a fun piece to build, hope you enjoy looking..

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[Mel Fulks]

Wonderful thing . I especially like that skirt, base ,treatment. Is it headed for parlor or bedroom?

[Robert LaPlaca]

Wonderful thing . I especially like that skirt, base ,treatment. Is it headed for parlor or bedroom?

Thanks Mel, there is a lot of engineering in that base. The front moulding with the very distinctive huge dovetail actually is proud of the Poplar bottom by 11/16", the side moldings are L shaped and wrap around the bottom of the case bottom. All this allows the bottom moldings assembly to account for the expansion and contraction of the case..

[John T Barker]

I used to work in Irion's cabinet shop and I saw pieces like that made pretty often so I can tell you from experience you knocked that one out of the park. Well done.

John

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Robert....What an incredibly beautiful piece with a great attention to some very intricate detail. Very well done Sir!

[Keith Outten]

Robert,

Beautiful work, how long did it take to complete the project?
.

[Paul Murphy]

That's a superbly well made piece!

[Andrew Hughes]

That sure is nice work Robert ,Love the color that's how mah should look,I am curious to the top coat of water lox, in place of shellac,did you also choose modern glues instead of hide glue?
Feel free to cuff me if I seem to have a nose problem.

[Richard Wolf]

Very well done. There are a lot of people that build functional furniture, but those like you that build period pieces take it to the next level. Beautiful.

I see you live in Charlotte, I just moved here and am in the process of looking at houses to buy.

[Robert LaPlaca]

That sure is nice work Robert ,Love the color that's how mah should look,I am curious to the top coat of water lox, in place of shellac,did you also choose modern glues instead of hide glue?
Feel free to cuff me if I seem to have a nose problem.

Thanks Andrew, the Mahogany I got from Irion was so so nice, very dense, heavy, dark and beautiful.

Actually much of the finish is shellac, all of the interior of the chest is finished with shellac, the exterior surfaces have a couple of coats of garnet shellac prior to the application of Waterlox OSF, OSF is applied as 'tight' as possible. Many of the pieces I have built have been gifts to family and although I love shellac, I was very fearful that someone may accidentally ruin the finish, I think that is how we got into using Waterlox.

I use hide glue for all of the gluing..

[Brett Robson]

That's a beautiful piece there! You are an amazing craftsman to have built such a piece!

[glenn bradley]

That is a beauty. I don't follow that style much but, you don't have to know anything about the style of that piece to see that it is a top notch execution.

I love the way the forums make you think about things outside your usual areas. I was intrigued by the drawer front construction and found this. The drawer front shaping is about 2 minutes in. Very interesting but, not near as interesting as Robert's thread. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work.

[Andrew Hughes]

That's good news,also makes sense too me.Thanks for taking the time to share your work.Andrew

[Jim Rimmer]

Very nice. The figure and the grain matching on the side panel is gorgeous.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Robert,

Beautiful work, how long did it take to complete the project?
.

Keith, the construction and finishing took a total of about 240 hours, about 160 hours for the actual building and 80 hours of finishing torture (can you tell I hate finishing)..