Eastern Shore of Virginia Corner Cabinet cira 1745

Bob Compton

Active member
I am seeking info on this Corner Cabinet, so I can build as Period Proper as possible. The corner cabinet is Pictured in Southern Furniture in the Colonial Williamsburg Collection in a Black Antiqued Finish. (which is how I plan on finishing it) Since the picture is of the black finish, it is very hard to see details.

Picture is attached of a Corner Cabinet.

If anyone could provide measurements, construction details, etc., I would greatly appreciate the help
Thanks
Bob Compton


 

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Yeah, i see it now in both posts. It's plate # 152 in Hurst/Prown Southern Furniture 1680-1830. Plate # 152.1 & 152.2 are very similar forms but have white painted trim which really make the architectural features stand out in spectacular fashion.
 
There was an article about a similar cabinet by Lonnie Bird.  I can't recall which magazine.  It may have been Popular Woodworking.  The same cabinet shows up in one of Yoder's books on cabinet making. 

Tony
 
Bob,
Your cabinet, and several others, is also in the book Raised Panel Furniture 1730-1830, Eastern Shore Virginia published by the Chrysler Museum, 1982, by James Melchor, N. Gordon Lohr, and Marilyn Melchor, ISBN 0-940-744-39-2.  It's a great book and has dimensions and molding profiles for this whole category of Eastern Shore pieces.  It also includes the famous corner cupboard that Lonnie Bird did the article on.  That cabinet is in the Met in NYC.  I'm sure the book is out of print but you might find it on line.  If not, get it touch and we'll see about some photocopies.
Bob
 
Interestingly enough, one of these corner cupboards just sold at auction a couple months ago at the Thomas A Gray sale at Brunk for $70,800, a record for an eastern shore Virginia cupboard. Here is a link to MAD article

http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/index.html?id=1898

Link that hopefully works with detail pic's

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7200937

YIKES, heres one from 2007 that went for 50k with buyers premium and it's not restored

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3035343
 
Tom Sears, mentioned prominently in the MAD article is a SAPFM member and has been instrumental in getting us unprecedented access to the MESDA collection.
 
OK, enough lusting at the pic's, how would you build a copy? Would you invest in old growth longleaf yellow pine or go with something easier & cheaper to get like poplar. I would guess that would depend on how you finished it. If you went with a "worn" paint decoration like CWF did with Peter Deen  or Gray did with Ned Hipp, you'd almost have to go with the heart pine, correct?
 
Thanks for your info and suggestions. This forum is great. Now, I guess I will test my luck with remaining a member receiving all this help.
We like the look of the worn Black. So I will use black milk paint over another color --to be determined. Recently I purchased soft maple and ash for $2 bd ft due to the seller needing to move. Both are very clear and 8" to 11" wide by 8' & 10' lgths. So, I am thinking about using the ash as the secondary wood and soft maple as primary. As you know, soft maple makes crisp moldings. Do you think this is the wrong choice. BTW --locally we can buy sugar pine by it is kinda pricey.
 
Bob,
Most of the Eastern Shore PAINTED corner cabinets were made of yellow pine.
I believe that most of the UNPAINTED corner cabinets were walnut. Mahagony was not often used as it was reserved more for high end furniture and these pieces were considered "middling".
Secondary wood on the Eastern Shore was usually yellow pine.

Howard Steier
 
I stumbled into an online article that awleonard mentioned in an earlier post that Lonnie Bird did for American Woodworker that has dimensions as well as his repro done in walnut. An interesting feature of these corner cupboards is that they were built by joiners, not cabinetmakers.


http://books.google.com/books?id=jfYDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA62&ots=PxD7jnn8Ff&dq=lonnie%20bird%20eastern%20shore%20cupboard&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q=lonnie%20bird%20eastern%20shore%20cupboard&f=false
 
The vast majority of these cabinets were of yellow pine as noted, and all the pine examples were painted.  A few, high style examples were in walnut.  The one in the Met, the one Lonnie Bird reproduced, is walnut.  If you have not seen it, it has aged to the most beautiful, deep golden color imaginable.  I first saw it in the Dover book, Construction of American Furniture Treasures, by Lester Margon, ISBN 0-486-23056-2.  Margon has very detailed plans and drawings including measured profiles of the moldings.  These corner cupboards, along with blanket chests, clothes presses and other cabinet styles from this area all feature similar joinery and are based on contemporary architectural styles.  This probably explains why they were made by carpenters rather than cabinet makers, although I think that distinction was blurred in non-urban areas like the Eastern Shore.

Poplar and soft maple will both produce a great paintable surface and lovely, crisp moldings, but under the paint I don't think it will look like the original. The grain on both is much tighter and won't have the typical, hard/soft growth ring pattern of the pine.  This won't matter much if you plan to leave the surface looking new, but will show if you plan to age the painted surface.
 
Yeah, i am going with Bob Mustain on this one, if one wants to have a worn painted surface you almost have to build it out of old growth yellow pine. Naturally, a worn paint decorated surface presents a whole new set of issues to deal with. To me, the paint decoration together with the architectural elements combine to vault this form into the American Masterpiece category.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY EVERYONE
 
Bob Compton said:
Thanks for your info and suggestions. This forum is great. Now, I guess I will test my luck with remaining a member receiving all this help.
We like the look of the worn Black. So I will use black milk paint over another color --to be determined. Recently I purchased soft maple and ash for $2 bd ft due to the seller needing to move. Both are very clear and 8" to 11" wide by 8' & 10' lgths. So, I am thinking about using the ash as the secondary wood and soft maple as primary. As you know, soft maple makes crisp moldings. Do you think this is the wrong choice. BTW --locally we can buy sugar pine by it is kinda pricey.

Bob, based on your note about sugar pine, I'm guessing you reside in the Western US.  Yellow pine is, of course, extremely easy to come by in the Southeast as construction lumber.  Old growth yellow pine is very rare except in one specific instance - re-cycled heart pine from tobacco barns.  While this heart pine has a charm of its own, I wouldn't think it would be all that suitable for furniture making - it's often no more than 8" wide at the absolute maximum, and also usually full of nail holes that would have to be filled.

Were I in your shoes, I'd try for some quarter-sawn yellow pine from one of the small sawmills around the Southeast and have it shipped to you.  It's definitely not going to be as cheap as construction lumber in the Raleigh Home Depot, but you may well be able to get better width and fewer knots.
 
Yeah, that would certainly be easier than getting old growth yellow pine (Pinus palustris), much cheaper too. I wonder though if you quarter sawed these faster growing yellow pines like loblolly, would it be stable enough to mill into a cupboard like this and not warp or twist?
 
The cupboard featured in the Maine Antiques digest is very similar to if not the same as the one drawn by Carlyle Lynch.  The plan is available from Tools for Working Wood here: 

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=LL-M-9&Category_Code=CLLD

Herman

 
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