Cherry Sideboard

This is a fairly modern Federal Revival piece, most were made during the second quarter of the 20th Century ( 1925-50). Federal Revival furniture was made in imitation of American Furniture made circa 1780-1830. This one's nicer than most, at auction $350.00. Lovejoy

This is a nice-looking piece and will certainly function well as pictured. It is typical of many revival-type pieces in that it incorporates design elements from several periods in a way which could not have existed in any of the periods. Here you have the basic Federal form of a sideboard with square-tapered legs and veneers. So far, so good. But pieces of the period were made with flat, uninterrupted surfaces for the convenience of the finishers, whose new and wildly-popular finishing-technique called "French-Polishing" could not be done on the quickly-being-outmoded Chippendale-type furniture. The polisher's tampon, with its tiny amounts of shellac, lubricating-oil, and pumice....and the 55-gallon-drum of elbow grease, could not be kept in the constant circular motion required of french-polishing when it was bashing into all those carved appliques and moldings. Instead, Federal pieces were clad with extreme crotch-mahogany veneers, decorated with inlays of stringing and edge-banding and oval paterae with fans, eagles (representing the new Republic) and many forms from nature: shells, and bellflowers being popular. The beauty of these surfaces was revealed and enhanced by the polished-in shellac which allowed the observer to believe he was seeing deep into the wood through a perfect mirror-bright surface (which he was!). The finish on these pieces sometimes cost more than the pieces! Check out the design elements on this piece. They are like icing on a cake, making it interesting and attractive, but they are at odds with the form. Inset quarter-columns,foliate-carved appliques, fluting, reeding, molding, proud escutcheon, rosette-pulls.... One thing I should note, too, is the fact that country cabinetmakers, even of-the-period, often combined periods, adapting old patterns, forms, and techniques to the new, which they or their customers may have seen in the city, resulting in some weird combinations. Usually, though, the skill-levels required are fairly consistent throughout the piece; if this piece were 'real', it would most likely not be veneered. Period-veneer was not the cheap option it is in modern times. It was a very expensive way to achieve fantastic visual effects by way of the rhythmic repetition of wild patterns across a surface. Any maker skilled in this would also be up on "we don't decorate with carvings'n'stuff anymore, but with inlay". Pieces like this will increase in value, as historical documents, at least, as we move, a day-at-a-time, away from the 20s and 30s, if properly kept and cared-for. The worst enemy of a piece like this, besides fire, is water. NEVER store this, or any piece of furniture in a basement or shed which is ever damp. Your restorer will SOAK you for it!