I am in the process of making a reproduction of a 1730’s table. I saw the original at a museum, but I am not very knowledgable about old time finishes–if there was any for this period. The table had a yellow tint to it but it did not have a faux finish like graining on it.
This table was used by Mennonite churches as the Singers Table and would have been located at the front of the church.
Any suggestions as to the type of finish I should use to replicate this part of the reproduction?
Thanks for any suggestions
Replies
There weren't too many choices available at the time in America. Shellac didn't become widely available as a finish until the early 19th Century.
Available materials were: Wax (beeswax), Linseed oil, various gums and resins such as copal, mastic, elemi, gum benzoin, sandarac, and rosin. These gums and resins were boiled with linseed oil in various combinations to make varnish. There was also casein and earth pigments for paint.
The Mennonites, preferring a simple life, probably just used wax, or lionseed oil which had literally been boiled until it was "hot enough to schorch a feather" to help it polymerize.
You could use linseed oil if you have the time and don't need much of a protective finish, or you could use a viping varnish or "danish oil" to get the same look with more protection and less time.
Michael R
Thanks for the information.
Kirby
These gums and resins were boiled with linseed oil in various combinations to make varnish
That caught my attention. The boiling, I think, brings on polymerization and makes a real varnish. So varnish isn't, as I had thought, a relatively recent finish? Did those early varnishes, or boiled oils, have characteristics anything approaching those of the past century?
One doesn't get to see too many original finishes on furniture over 200 yers old. The few pieces I have worked on that hadn't been overcoated with shellac appeared to have a very thin finish, not a built-up film. Whether this is due to wear, oxidation, UV degradation, I don't know.
I do know that natural resin varnishes were in use well into the 20th Century. alkyd resins only came into use into the 1920's and it didn't instantly replace natural resins.
Natural resin varnishes seemed to perform pretty well. I don't know offhand how long varnish has been used on ship's rigging, but I'm pretty sure it dates back at least to the early 19th Century.
My overall impression is that the finish was a little softer than alkyd varnish, but held up pretty well. Again, there were so many different formulations - short oil, long oil, this resin or that resin.... The resins were added to provide various degrees of hardness and gloss. When boiled, they actually combined chemically with the oils, just as alkyd resins combine with the vegetable oils in use today. Boiling linseed oil increases polymerization, but adding resins actually modifies the oil molecules, as I understand it.
Varnish wasn't all that popular in the 50's (in my circles) because it was hard to use, but there weren't too may choices back then. We used a lot of shellac on woodwork and cabinets, and only used varnish on tables, bar tops, and such where the additional heat and chemical resistance was needed. The modern soya-alkyd varnishes that I use occasionally now are much easier to brush, harder, clearer, flash off much faster, and don't seem to yellow near so bad
Lacquer came into commercial factory use in the 1920's also, but I first saw it being used by contractors in middle 50's, and it wasn't much used by consumers until much later. (I started making things out of wood for money when I was about 10 years old in the middle 50's, so my observations and recollections from that time may not be too well informed.)
You have to remember, too, that in the 17th and 18th Century, everybody made up their own finishes. I have formulas dating back to the 13th Century, and there are all kinds of different combinations and permutations of ingredients, both oil and spirit varnishes. Still, I strongly suspect that linseed oil and wax were the most common finishes up until about 1800. Sheraton wrote around 1790 that his finish was simply linseed oil and brick dust rubbed well into the surface.
Michael R
Edited 4/5/2005 8:08 pm ET by Woodwiz
Hey, thanks for that detailed reply. You surprised me when you wrote that shellac was commonly used there for woodwork and cabinets in the 1950's.
As a bit of local informatin, the Waterlox company has its business office in Cleveland. So there is some extra promotion and availability. I like their varnish.
Waterlox is sort of an exception. It is a tung oil and phenolic resin varnish. It is harder and more water resistant than soya-alkyd varnishes, but less clear, and it yellows even worse that uralkyds ("oil based poly").
I have over a dozen varnish recipes from about 1550 to 1725. I'lll give you a couple so you can get an idea of the range.
From 1550: Boil 3 lbs of linseed oil until it scorches a feather put into it, then add 8 oz Juniper gum (sandarach) and aloes hepatica (resin from aloe socotrina), mix thoroughly. Filter through cloth, and before using, warm in the sun.
From 1685: Elemi, anime, white incense, and tender copal, 2 drams each; powder and dissolve in acetic acid in a glass vessel, adding 2 drams of gum tragacanth and 4 drams crystallized sugar. Dry off this mixture and powder finely. Take 1 lb oil of lavender or turpentine and 6 oz Cyprian turpentine and boil them on a water bath. When the turpentine is well dissolved, add the powder and mix thoroughly. Boil for three hours.
elemi: a fragrant resin from the Amyris elemifera of Egypt.
Anime: Hard copal - resin from the Hymenoeia courbaril, or from the Vateria indica.
Tender copal - various resins from plants of the genus Hymenoeia
Gum Tragacanth - from the shrub Astragalus tragacantha
Oil of lavender - distilled with water from the flowers of the lavender plant. One variety is called oil of spike.
Turpentine is tree resin from various conifers. When distilled you get oil or spirits of turpentine and the residue is colophony or rosin.
The rest of the formulas are equally diverse, so you can see why it's difficult to generalize. These varnish recipes are mostly from northern Italy. Each craftsman or guild had their pet formulas. Varnishes were used over oil paintings, for gilding, and for all sorts of purposes. They could be oil based, spirit based, or combine oil and spirits.
Confused yet?
Michael R
To all,
This is great information, I really appreciate the discussion and help you all have been. It looks like a linseed oil and wax finish is probably the route I will go.
Kirby
Confused yet?
Yes.
I think shellac is a very old finish--and used quite a lot several hundred years ago.Gretchen
I think shellac is a very old finish--and used quite a lot several hundred years ago.
++++++++++++++++Correct, Gretchen. However, shellac wasn't widely -- or inexpensively -- available in North America until the mid-1800s.BLO (with additives to make varnishes) would have been common. Tung might have been available in port cities but probably not widely used. USDA introduced the tung tree to California in 1904.Leon Jester
So if the piece was made in the mid-1700's, it was probably European anyway.Gretchen
Gretchen,
There is a lot of documentation for American made furniture built pre 1750.
Regards,
Ray
I am aware of that. Thank you., I was talking about the original post--I would sort of guess that that might be an English reproduction piece but don't know.Gretchen
So if the piece was made in the mid-1700's, it was probably European anyway.
*************It could be. The Mennonites began emigrating to the Colony of Pennsylvania about that time. It could be a piece brought over from Europe, in which case it's origins are likely to be either Swiss or German. Bear in mind that shipping it over would have been terribly expensive. Cubic was precious on sailing vessels and went for premium prices. Look at this in the light of wages of the time, a journeyman would be paid on the order of 4 to 5 shillings a week, plus room and board. Trans-Atlantic shipping would have been likely on the order of £10, the equivalent of forty weeks wages for a journeyman. Transportation to the New World was expensive. Take a look at an indenture for a carpenter and joiner in 1755. In exchange for transportation plus food and drink from England to Virginia, William Buckland agreed to work for four years for £20/year plus room and board. Mr. Buckland would have furnished his own kit. Mr. Buckland must have acquired his Master's papers, no mention is made of him being a journeyman. Transportation would have likely been in steerage, or common, passage, instead of a private cabin. IOW, bunked in next to the crew.http://www.virtualjamestown.org/wbind1.htmlIf it's of European origin, it might have shellac used in it's finish. More likely is a varnish or plain BLO (note that linseed oil was originally boiled, not chemically treated with driers).If it's origin is Colonial Pennsylvania, it again COULD have shellac used in it's finish, but is unlikely.Short of making one's own finish the closest commercial finish available is likely the Tried and True brand.Odds-on likely finish is BLO or BLO varnish and beeswax.Information on history of Mennonites:
http://history.mennonite.net/Currency equivalents: £1 = 20 shillings (s); 1 shilling = 12 pence (d); 1 guinea = £1/1s or 21 shillings. When the dollar stabilized after adoption of the Constitution, it traded at approximately $5 to £1, and held there until after WWII.Wage equivlaents, kinda: my grandfather was a master carpenter, in 1917 he moved to Washington DC to work on what is now Ft. Belvoir. He was paid $3/day, working as a general carpenter, foreman of the site, and site manager for the contractor. FWIW, my dad told me that granddad whinged about having to hire "any damn fool with a hammer and a saw" because of government regulations.Regards,Leon JesterEdited 4/9/2005 6:51 pm ET by Leon Jester
Edited 4/9/2005 6:51 pm ET by Leon Jester
>> 1 shilling = 20 pence (d)1 shilling = 12 pence.
whoops. Thanks, Dunc.Leon Jester
More info on the table. It is located at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
They date it to 1730. It is constructed of walnut for the top (we did not see this since it was in pieces in storage), maple for the battens and I think legs and stretcher too. The battens are fastened to the top by sliding dovetails. The battens to the legs with dowels. The stretcher tenon is mortised through the cross lap joint of the crossbuck style legs and secured with a wedge at each end.
The table is 9'-6" long, 2' 7-3/4" high and 1'-10" wide.
A Titus Geesey donated his antique collection to the musuem in 1969 and this was part of it. The musuem did not indicate any type of finish on it and I am not great with finishes. There is an inscription on the bottom of the table "Gingrichs Mennonite Meetinghouse". Gingrichs Church is located in Lebanon County Pennsylvania.
Thanks for the great discussion.
Varnishes were used in the manufacture of musical instruments, most notably stringed ones, violins, violas, etc.As previously noted, solids were added to oils to make a varnish.http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/v1/varnish.aspKremer Pigments offers a variety of pigments, varnish-making componentshttp://www.kremer-pigmente.de/englisch/homee.htmInformation on shellac:http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/author/zinsser/shellac.shtmRegards,Leon Jester
I would ask Rob Millard on this forum.
KW
So few period pieces still have their original finish, or have not had some type of recoating, that it is difficult to know what would have been on a piece when first made. The period references I've read, speak of various tree resins, oils ( linseed), plant extracts ( for coloring), and wax being used as finishes. Although I don't believe any of these references date back to as far as your table. The oldest piece I've reproduced was a c.1725 William and Mary lowboy, which I finished with oil and wax. I used the Tried and True varnish oil, but if I had to do it over again, I'd use either standard linseed oil with some Japan drier added, or better yet thin shellac, despite the fact that shellac wouldn't be historically correct. The first thing that comes to mind, to mimic the yellow color is to add some Trans Tint lemon yellow dye to the oil, but this may not work. If you went with shellac, it too could be tinted with the dye, but this requires very careful application, using highly thinned shellac, with only a tiny amount of dye to avoid streaks in the finish.
Rob Millard
Not period correct but shellac is probably what is on it. Shellac turns yellowish after time and is so easy to apply and care for that it gives a wonderful patena after just a few years.
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