Posted 6 years ago
Julierose
(1 item)
I picked this table up at a yard sale. The owner said it was her great grandmothers kitchen work table. I will be using it as is, just cleaned up and oiled, in my breakfast nook in our 127 years old Queen Anne home. I’m just curious about the way the boards were cut for the top. About half of them are straight cut and attached on an angle and the other half angle cut to fit the skewed boards. They are fit together with tongue and groove and the top is perfectly squared off, just has angled boards. The top dimension is 40”x28”.
Not sure why the boards are cut like that. Maybe just for a cool looking top? Awesome table!
Probably a replacement top-- I'd expect the original to be a one board top.
A photo of the drawer joints may help to confirm the age.
scott
I agree with scottvez on it not being the original top. Years ago it was common to use reclaimed lumber to make a new table top. Normally the boards were just laid beside each other and stabilizer cleats held them together from the bottom. The top would be out of square so it was flipped over and cut to be square with equal measurements left right and end to end. It looks like whoever did this knew the basics but didn't exactly think ahead about the finished product. I have seen them in a pantry with angled outboard boards but never quite this drastic an angle.
That's the kind of thing I would do, if I had thought about it. I think it was done just to be different.
The wood on the top is exactly the same wood, color and wear as the legs and frame so pretty sure it’s original. Also several boards were not attached when I got it and there are no other holes or marks where other boards may have been attached. All of the wood has a satiny burnished feel to it from years of use, like the handrails in a queue line for a popular roller coaster. I’ve had two people who both happen to be in Arizona say they have or had almost identical tables that were originally desks in offices, one a railroad the other a newspaper office, but both in Arizona. This one came from a farm here in Michigan and I only paid $10!
Someone had a very bad idea to cut up a new top, a rather bad job.
I added a photo of the drawer side. I also know the top is the same one that was on it at least 40 years ago because they showed me a photo of the grandma, mom and daughter making Christmas cookies on it in the 70’s. In the photo it was pretty worn then so it being original is a pretty good possibility
What an interesting table, with a great story. (AND an *awesome* yard sale find for $10?!!) I'd also leave it just like it is...looks as though your feline supervisors approve, too!! :-)
I agree with the cats also! I think it might be original, but I am not a furniture expert. Awesome it is here in Michigan.
Brunswick I totally believe you because it is quite common in floors in very old homes all over the country. Unlike today, rooms back then were seldom built to be square. Homeowners built their own with what skill they had. As a result some floor planking had to be cut at an angle to fit properly. I worked on a number of old houses and even churches up north and found the floors to be the same as you are saying. One place that sticks in my mind even had Indian shutters that were cut on an angle to fit. I learned from the gentleman I did an apprenticeship under that people would arrive in wagons and live in the wagons while building their cabin. When it came time for floor boards they would take apart the wagons and use the boards for the floor in the new house.