Case Furniture Dimensions from Pictures

[Johnny D]

My try

[John McAlister]

Johnny D. I'm not, for one minute, being critical. Your work is beautiful, as is the work of whoever made the original. And if I was a customer looking at these 2 pieces I couldn't imagine choosing one over the other.  But my untrained eye seems to see 2 areas where there is a slight difference, and I think that's what you're asking about.
 1.The serpintine curves on yours seems more pronounced than on the original.
 2. The legs on yours seem shorter with a more pronounced knee than that on the original.
These may very well not be valid observations.  It's hard to really tell in a photograph; and, of course, that's why it's hard to copy from a photograph.
Will be interesting to hear from others.

[Johnny D]

JM:

Thank you for your kind words.  I'd reached both of those conclusions before my post.  When deriving the curves for the front, in addition to soliciting information on this forum, I asked a highly respected local reproduction cabinetmaker his opinion.  He suggested that I should err on the side of "bulginess", so I did.  I like it that way.  It's about the most bulged example I've seen, but oh well.

On the feet, your two points are both spot on.  I could fix the knee on the ones I have, but maybe I should start a new set that's a bit taller.

I was also concerned that the case is not as wide as the original.  The two photos are pretty close to the same angle, and perhaps do not indicate a strong deviation, but it sure feels narrower when looked at straight on.  No matter what, it'll be a fine piece when done and in my front room.  I lose a lot of sleep (figuratively) over things like this.  Putting this much work and money into a piece of furniture makes one wish for a high degree of confidence in the outcome, which is not always available.


Coming back to the topic of this thread:  Getting pieces just right from oblique photos is difficult, and you often can't tell how close you are until you've got the piece finished.

P.S. Thanks to Mike Holden, who generously showed me how to compress pictures with IrfanView.

JD

[Johnny D]

On deck:
Newport flat-top slipper foot highboy.  I was able to locate photos of 12 pieces like the one shown below.

[Johnny D]

I will be making this next.  Pretty straightforward piece, and I'll be making a matching lowboy for it.  Going for a land speed record on this next project.

Having various photos, and using calipers and much eraser, I arrived at the following:
Various interesting relationships came out (for me), such as the centers of the arches in the apron are set apart by one seventh the case width.  The height of the lower big draw in the upper case is exactly one quarter of the width of the lower case.  Looking at photos with these sorts of relationships in mind can be helpful in establishing proportions when you're working only with envelope dimensions.  Whether the original designer had these exact numbers in mind is another question.

JD


Any comments welcome.

[Bill]

Folks,

Thanks for all the replies and useful information.  I have a couple of projects in mind and with the information you folks provided I think I can make up a set of drawings.

Thanks again,
Bill Kahl

[Johnny D]

Bill:

I guess we all forgot to mention the chapter in Jeff Greene's book in which he goes into some detail regarding the techniques for extracting dimensions from photographs.  I've never employed it, but the rules for perspective and projection have been carefully worked out hundreds of years ago, and I'm betting a careful application of those methods would produce a good result.  

For me the difference between "not quite" and "just right" is huge.  But in the end, as we say in my business, "looks good, is good".

JD