Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

304 Conservation of Furniture
(a) (b)
Figure 7.11 A mid-eighteenth century mahogany
architect’s table, English
(a) Table open (after conservation)
(b) Detail of the open drawer (after conservation)
(c) Detail of the jointing of drawer front to front leg
(mortise and tenoned) and drawer front to drawer side
(dovetail housing) before conservation
known as end clamps, restrict the movement
of panels or boards and often result in splits
caused by compression set when the RH
fluctuates (Stürmer and Werwein, 1986). Many
examples of design not suited to accommodate
movement that would occur in service are
found in the early use of walnut in English
furniture, where mouldings are extensively
applied across the grain and veneers are laid
over both frame and panel of framed components
such as doors. The nailing or screwing of
drawer bottoms is another example. Splits
along the grain of wood near the ends of
panels are typical of the damage that may
occur through the use of cleats or battens
fixed across the grain of the wood in the
construction of doors and fall-fronts in furniture.
Figure 7.13 shows a detail of the use of
cleats and typical damage that may result
when the two components are fixed in relation
to each other instead of being allowed to
move (as could occur for example if a dovetail
housing were used).
(c)
The use of metals with wood is one of the
commonest examples of the use of incompatible
materials. Strap hinges running across the
grain and boulle marquetry are two instances
of this. The furniture designed by Carlo Bugatti
(1856–1940) often develops problems in the
vellum or parchment coverings that decorate
the furniture as the amount of expansion and
contraction of the skin material is different from
the substrate wood. Similar problems have
occurred with furniture decorated in the style
of Andres Charles Boulle in which veneers of
brass and tortoiseshell are frequently combined
with pewter, horn and exotic woods. This is
nearly always found to have suffered tremendous
problems of loose and lifting veneers
requiring elaborate and time-consuming treatments
(Alcouffe, 1977; Considine et al., 1990;
Eames, 1980; Michaelsen, 1978; Ramond, 1989;
Wackernagel 1978).
It is actually very difficult to overcome all
these potential design faults and still produce
something interesting and usable.