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Thread: Townsend queen anne chest in curly maple

  1. #1

    Townsend queen anne chest in curly maple

    I was impressed long ago by the beautiful simplicity of John Townsend's Queen Anne chest featured in Jeffrey Greene's spectacular "American Furniture of the 18th Century". The book included a full frontal photo I could scale from plus an exploded drawing showing construction details; enough to make the piece.

    I had some silver maple set aside that had some moderate curl to some of the boards. I had practiced dovetails but never actually featured them as this piece does. This project is larger than most I tackle and would require careful craftsmanship, so I do not apologize for setting it aside twice and taking a total of four years to finally finish it.

    Here is what I worked from:



    Big drawer just out of clamps:



    They cleaned up just fine:



    Time to fit drawers:



    Feet are on, time for some tung oil:



    I was worried about the through dovetails on the top; I think they came out okay:



    I spent as much time applying the finish as it seemed to want. Most of the curl was featured on top and front.



    The piece makes our stairway landing into a tiny room, with storage!



    Brasses from Londonderry.


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Goleta / Santa Barbara
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    962
    Wow, nicely done. Very nicely done!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Islesboro, Maine
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    1,268
    Looks great....Woods really nice also....

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,685
    Truly beautiful work and material!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #5
    Wow. Wonderful. I am curious though about the molding around the top. Won't it crack with th seasons?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
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    6,390
    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    Wow. Wonderful. I am curious though about the molding around the top. Won't it crack with th seasons?
    Not if the side moldings are attached with sliding dovetails, and glued only in the front few inches.................... We shall see soon enough, hopefully.....
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Carlisle, Pa
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    I really like curly maple. Very nicely executed.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Sacramento, ca.
    Posts
    269
    Really good workmanship the dove tails are great. Show us the box, with the interesting top, that I see. Looks like spalted wood ?
    Bill

    " You are a square peg in a square hole, and we need to twist you to make you fit. " My boss

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Agusta, GA
    Posts
    397
    Great job! I love that curly maple!

  10. #10
    A really fine piece of furniture. After taking on a large project that stretches your capabilities, the normal sized projects seem a lot easier.

    Good work.

  11. #11
    Prashun, if the front 3" near the mitre are only only glued on the sides and the rest of the molding is only attached with wire brads there shouldn't be a problem with the cross grain molding... Having said that, If one is OCD, attaching the molding with a sliding dovetail is the best..

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert LaPlaca View Post
    Prashun, if the front 3" near the mitre are only only glued on the sides and the rest of the molding is only attached with wire brads there shouldn't be a problem with the cross grain molding... Having said that, If one is OCD, attaching the molding with a sliding dovetail is the best..
    This is what I did: glue the front 3" and brad the remainder. The sides have contracted ~3/8" this winter and everything is still in one piece. I thought about the sliding dovetail - it is superior - but I had just spent many hours shaping the moldings without router bits and had no spare curly wood if I botched a piece, so I went the way Townsend probably did himself.

    Thank you all for the kind comments. I think that this piece is a good example of the primary forces behind most people's opinion of a furniture piece: the first things they take in are the overall design (thank you JT) and the finish. I spent more time than ever getting an oil finish to look its best and managed to pop the curl in the wood. If you get these two things right - I think I did - then the fixed mistakes and suboptimal joinery etc. just slide into the background. Memorize this. You will find yourself making more reproductions as a result. This is okay.
    Last edited by Tom Sontag; 02-06-2015 at 1:30 PM. Reason: ...

  13. #13
    You did a great job with construction and wood selection. You should be proud.

    Red
    RED

  14. #14
    Tom that is a fine looking chest, congratulations.. Beautiful curly maple. Jeffery Greene's books is one of my favorites

  15. #15
    Nicely done. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that has taken 4 years to finish a project.
    "The key to patience is doing something else."

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