I am about to build a flat top chest on chest with with quater turned columns on the top and bottom case. This piece of furniture is not an exact reproduction of any one piece, but designed to looked like it came from the 18th century. My question is how was the upper case put together with the quater column in the corner and the grain of the case side running vertical?
I am only going off of pictures of antiques and I have and idea of how it was all attached but I would like to know for sure. If this question is to hard to answer online, maybe you know of a book or website that would help answer these questions. Thanks
cm
Replies
I see that Gary wasn't able to get back to you about this question so I moved it to Ernie Conover's folder. Ernie is an accomplished turner and furniture maker and probably has some experience with this construction process.
For visual help, I found this chest in The Gallery, which features quarter columns on the front of the case. Link: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Gallery/GalleryImage.aspx?id=5164
It appears that the case is built with a standard dovetail construction, and the quarter column is integrated into the face frame. Bascially, it's just applied to the front of the carcase, which is fine since the grain of the quarter-column is running in the same direction as the side of the case.
Let's see what Ernie has to say.
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
It is just as Matt has said, the half columns are turned by paper jointing the work so that it splits exactly in half and the resulting half are applied to the edges (stiles) of the face frame. At this point they become "engaged columns." Grains are parallel so everything is copasetic. The example in the gallery has the stiles brought to 45 degrees to increase the visibility of the engaged columns. Most 18th century examples of chest on chests do not have this beveled feature.
The most common scheme to attach the two is to put a molding around the top of the bottom chest creating a recess for the top chest to sit in. This should provide no structural barriers to engaged columns up and down.
With best regards,
Ernie Conover
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