Ming Couch Table
This table was built using the photograph and measured drawings, plate 2, of “Chinese Domestic Furniture” by Gustav Ecke as a guide. I followed the books joinery drawings except I substituted dowels for the stub tenons used to attach the legs to the underside of the top frame.
The table is Honduras mahogany with a veneered center panel, finished with spirit based polyurethane.
-
-
I admired the original tables firm and assertive stance, and I built 2 prototypes in pine to work out how the curved legs established it. Most of what I know about "fluid" curves I learned designing aluminum extrusions, and the result here is mathematically correct uniform tapers, hopefully right on the cusp between rigid geometry and free form line. I do wonder how this would appear to a pre industrial sensibility.
-
Chinese joinery isn't just about connecting one piece of wood to another. Sometimes multiple parts are interlocked together simultaneously. I was pleased to get 4 identical crisply registered corners. This is machine joinery. My hat's off to those old Chinese guys with hand tools.
Comments
Very nice table. Congratulations
Log in or create an account to post a comment.
Sign up Log in