Barn find.

[MikeG.]

Literally.

We were looking around an old farm shed with a farmer friend of ours a few days ago (trying to find a gate.....another story), when we stumbled across an old washstand. It was covered in rubbish, and in a parlous state, but it went straight in the back of the van. Here it is in all its glory:

Now, I'm thinking early 20th century. Edwardian, late Victorian. I'm no expert, so what do you reckon? The brass drawer handle gives something of a clue:

It's walnut. Well, unless you guys tell me otherwise:

It's been slathered in 2 different colours of green paint, has some whitewash on it, and it was stripped in caustic soda about 30 years ago. Only a couple of the glue joints haven't failed. Unfortunately, it was riddled with woodworm, including plenty of active ones. I've sloshed some anti-worm jollop over it a couple of times, but this damage means that there is no point trying to restore it. Oh, and here's the point: this is going to go in our bathroom, and serve its original purpose. We have the original marble top.

It's got a bit of a structural issue or two:

So, can anyone help me with the date? And what would you do with it?

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I've absolutely have no idea what era it's from, but I think it's great . If it was mine - and I had the skill - I'd do what I could to get it to a useable and presentable state, and use it 8)

Obi Wan ccasion5:

 

[MikeG.]

Those photos don't show just how much worm damage there is. I don't think there is any way to restore it such that it could be lacquered or similar. I have a feeling that it will end up with a coat of chalk paint. One way or another it is going to be in use in my bathroom next week.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Those photos don't show just how much worm damage there is. I don't think there is any way to restore it such that it could be lacquered or similar. I have a feeling that it will end up with a coat of chalk paint. One way or another it is going to be in use in my bathroom next week.

I'm sure it will look great however you choose to tackle it. Please post pics when you sorted it :wink:

OWK

 

[MikeG.]

I will. I can tell you that the finishes are coming off really easily. The original (French polish, maybe??) is as dry as the Gobi and turns to powder at the sound of an approaching scraper.

 

[custard]

You can buy Victorian washstands in almost any provincial furniture auction for about £20 or £25, and that's in decent repair, worm free, and complete with the original draw pulls, marble top, tiled back etc.

Is it Walnut? Most I've seen are Pine or Mahogany, but maybe there are some Walnut ones out there. In any event I wouldn't worry, after all antique furniture is whatever wood you want it to be. This seller for example has decided that he wants his washstand to be Rosewood.

Yeah, right.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Anti ... %7Ciid%3A1

 

[MikeG.]

That's true of course Custard, but the nice thing is that this house I'm in used to be a pair of farm-workers' cottages for the farm where I found the washstand, and the washstand been in their family for as far back as they can remember. So whilst there are better examples out there, this particular piece of furniture has a very close connection with this house. Besides, it's in such poor nick that I don't feel in the least guilty about chopping it around a bit. Watch the photos in the next few days as this changes. The top shelf, for instance, has gone already, as have the spindles (one of which had broken off already). I need to shorten it by about 40 or 50mm, too.

Believe it or not, I've never made anything out of English walnut. However, this is quite like American walnut, only with more contrasting colours. It is similarly soft and light, and it feels the same under a plane. So I'm certain it's walnut unless someone tells me otherwise (a properly focussed photo would have helped, I guess).

 

[AndyT]

I agree with your dating Mike.
It could be sweet gum, aka satin walnut or liquid amber. This was imported from the USA and was a popular choice for furniture like that. I used some (salvaged from an old cupboard) to make my library steps chair and found it lovely mild wood to work with. The grain is a little plain, which I guess goes with the ease of working.

 

[MikeG.]

Thanks for that Andy. Interesting. That isn't a timber I've even heard of.

 

[MikeG.]

Anyone know when Bakelite first made it to the UK? This washstand has bakelite caster wheels.

I've come in for a magnifying glass because it has a patent number on it.

 

[custard]

this house I'm in used to be a pair of farm-workers' cottages for the farm where I found the washstand...this is quite like American walnut

Fair enough, a connection between a specific piece of furniture and a specific home is pretty rare, so I say more power to your elbow.

Could it be American Walnut? It's not the most likely option, but it's possible. There's a Maples catalogue from 1882 that shows a wash stand and towel rack set in American Walnut. However, that's the exceptions rather than the rule.

American Walnut isn't usually associated with English antique furniture (I suspect generations of antique dealers wrongly identified it) but it was actually dribbling into this country from the earliest Quaker beginnings, in the 1720's import duty from America was removed and American Black Walnut suddenly became a serious timber for UK makers. The American War of Independence stopped the trade dead, but when Napoleon's European wars made it difficult to source continental Walnut, so American Black surged again in popularity. By the mid and late 19th century the sheer scale of the American timber trade drove down prices and pushed usage still higher.

Andy's point about "Satin Walnut" is a very good one. American Satin Walnut, or as it was previously called, Red Gum, is an example of clever timber marketing, like today's practise of changing "Poplar" to "Tulip Wood". According to Sutcliffe (1902) Red Gum/Satin Walnut first appeared in UK timber yards in 1887, but at about 2/- per cubic foot had such a big price advantage it quickly became popular for lower end domestic furniture. In fact there was an even cheaper spin off from Red Gum, the wide sap band was sometimes stripped off and sold for next to nothing as "Hazel Pine", leaving the Red Gum heartwood to be marketed as "Satin Walnut".

It's a fool's errand trying to identify timber from a photo, but given the four most likely options are Beech, Pine, Mahogany, and Red Gum/Satin Walnut then I'd tend to agree with Andy and go for Satin Walnut.

 

[Jacob]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

My grandparents had similar wash stand, with the usual accessories; marble top, enamelled tin wash basin, large jug for hot water etc

 

[MikeG.]

Great post, Jacob. Much appreciated and many thanks.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

What a nice thing to find - especially with the connection to your house. When I first saw it, the slightly fussy detail made me think mid/late 1800's.

It seems likely that the top was marble, like what Jacob says.

I wonder if there might have been a "looking glass" in the top section - like this example:

http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/173886 ... washstand/

I also wonder if the Bakelite it original - could it have been a later addition?

Will you show us what you do with it?

Cheers, W2S

 

[MikeG.]

Yep, I'm photographing every step. My wife returned from a trip yesterday, and we cleared up some details, so I'm going to start surgery on the piece today. I'm going to be fairly radical. I've got the original marble top.......but that will require some alteration.

 

[AndyT]

I recently trimmed a friend's door - it was scraping grooves into the marble step. Once the door was free, getting the marble step smooth was surprisingly easy, even with just a pad of sandpaper in my hand. I would expect that a powered sander would make a very quick job of it.

 

[MikeG.]

It's even easier than that, Andy. I've just got to trim it to length with an angle grinder, then find a mason to cut some holes (for the basin waste and taps). I doubt my usual plumber has the right sized diamond hole cutter for the waste hole, but I'll check with him first.

 

[MikeG.]

I recently trimmed a friend's door - it was scraping grooves into the marble step. Once the door was free, getting the marble step smooth was surprisingly easy, even with just a pad of sandpaper in my hand. I would expect that a powered sander would make a very quick job of it.

 

[MikeG.]

Just a reminder, this is what this 100 year old washstand looked like when I got it in the workshop:

I quickly decided I didn't want the shelf over the tile spashback, but discovered that it was screwed on, with the screw-heads covered by the backing board. I found the screws using a rare earth magnet:

Then drilled out with a Forstner bit to reveal them:

I disassembled everything. Rather, it just fell to bits:

The green paint had got everywhere (at least it showed that the door panel had been loose-fitted):

The standard of construction was poor. In places, very poor. This is how the main cross member joined the front and back rails:

When did machine-made dovetails and routered mortises become a thing?

And there was some evidence of a power planer:

Apologies for the out-of-focus photos. Goodness knows what went wrong. Anyway, everything was slathered at some stage in horrible green paint. Even the castors:

But they cleaned up OK:

Note the Bakelite wheels, which dates the piece to after 1910. Definitely original. I spent the best part of 2 days scraping (a lot) and sanding (a little):

Removing the paint was the easy bit. The original finish had to come off too, because it was half-off already, and I need a consistent surface to re-finish.

The reason I am going to so much trouble with a pretty unlovely piece of furniture is that this is going in the new bathroom as a washstand, but I need to adapt it to fit. I don't mind doing this with something as sad and poorly made as this bit of furniture. So having cleaned up all of the parts it was time to make it 80mm narrower:

Time for a glue up:

Note the sash cramp on the front. This is because the whole thing had a terrible twist, and needed persuading into something approaching a rectilinear shape:

I had previously removed the drawer fronts from the drawer boxes, which will be superfluous, so then cut the drawer fronts to fit the new gap, and stood them in place for a photo:

Finally, I turned my attention to the tiled upstand. We had agreed to reduce its width by one tile (6"), so I knocked off the side piece:

....then slid a tile out, cut the backing board, cut the two rails shorter and formed new tenons:

(I remembered just in time to take a photo, after I'd started gluing).

Finally, and up to date, I glued it all back together, 6 inches shorter than it was previously:

Depending on my workload tomorrow, I might be finishing this and trying it out in the new bathroom for the first time.

 

[AndyT]

Mike, re machine made joints etc - this link should show you most of the patents for joint making machines, in date order. The first patents are surprisingly early but I believe that widespread adoption wasn't until near the end of the nineteenth century when small steam engines, or oil (diesel) engines became practical for small scale shops, with lineshafts and belts to each machine.
The site is American, but so were most of the machinery innovations.

http://datamp.org/patents/displayPics.p ... pe&start=0