Recent Work
This picture sums up where I am these days. Looking backward and forward, old and new. The Hadley trunk, based on examples from 1695-1725, I made of sassafras and finished with paint and shellac. It rests upon a minimalist and modern white oak breakfast table. The trunk is festooned with an ancient carving pattern complemented by an escutcheon cast from original 17th Century brasses. The corners are nailed like the original.
The table is restrained, it is all about the form., the only decorations are the figure of the boards with which it is made. The finish is “dry” with a low shine that suits it perfectly. It’s modern and clean but approachable and warm, usable.
I’ve been bouncing back and forth between styles for the last 13 years, making custom furniture here at Antick in Lambertville, New Jersey. It’s never a straight line, but sometimes things relate to each other in style or species of wood. This year I’ve been making 17th Century case pieces or farm tables. Here are some of them.
This cabinet is based on a piece at Winterthur in Delaware. It is made of walnut with excellent hardware from Londonderry. I really like the turnings and, though it’s hard to see, the x-stretcher between them.
This is a farm table I designed in white oak with a plank top.
This valuables cabinet was particularly interesting. It is made of walnut with two figured tombstone paneled doors. Lots of great hardware and moldings.
Lastly we have another farm table. This one in walnut with a one and a half inch thick top. At nearly 7 feet by 4 feet it is truly a great table.
Looking back at 2012
It’s been a long old year here at Antick. It all started with a new customer Mr. G—, an interesting fellow who likes to turn discarded lumber into unusual antiques. This is the first piece, a tall case clock made of old pine book shelves. He then paints or otherwise finishes them himself.
Reproducing a reproduction, again using reclaimed lumber, and a riff on the same form.
I also made a new stick for a cane, it’s ebony carved to resemble blackthorn.
I’ve already posted about this double sided bookcase. Then I made tables in cherry and curly maple.
Another reclaimed lumber chest and a thoroughly modern nixie tube clock out of a solid block of walnut.
A miniature blanket chest with drawer made of reclaimed pine.
Two compound angle dovetail projects in cherry.
A Queen Anne mirror in curly maple, and a Pennsylvania German bench.
This is an architectural model that is also a box, it’s a very cool design and was the first time I have cut a dovetail in plexiglass!
A ship model weathervane and solid wood skull made of bass wood.
More weathervanes, the top one is based on Albert Pinkham Ryder’s painting “the Racetrack”.
More architectural models.
This is a bathroom vanity made of white oak in an old english Elizabethan style. It is almost eleven feet long.
It will be stained quite dark. I love the rhythm of the scrolled cuts at the base and the many levels of mouldings and carving of the facade.
We are wishing for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year for us all.
Antick 