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Antiques & Collectibles

old hutch and sideboard

18 years ago

Hello,

I am a newbie to the forum, looks very interesting.

I am attempting to post pictures of a sideboard and hutch that my wife has inherited, owned at one time by her great grandmother.

We don't know anything about them except that we like them, and would like to use them in our dining room. They are roughed up, but I am wondering if they have any value as is before we consider refinishing or not.

Any thoughts?

(hope the picture link works)

[URL=http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e45/leshabitant/furniture002.jpg][IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e45/leshabitant/th_furniture002.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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Comments (5)

User
18 years ago
1920s-1930s mass-market furniture. If they are sturdy, a good cleaning and polishing will get you some nice furniture.

They are almost certainly VENEERED ... which makes refinishing a tricky proposition.
habby
Original Author
18 years ago
Hey thanks for your reply.

This I'm sure is the "You're out to lunch go find another forum" question of the day but here it goes anyway:

These are solid wood. Veneered would mean it looks like the particle board / IKEA stuff we see so much of these days, would it not?
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hablano
18 years ago
Veneered wood was used in a lot of furniture in those days. My mother in law had a dining room table and chairs and a buffet in a mahogany finish. They used strips of wood over another wood and stained the strips. It is nothing like the particle board furniture you see today, It was wood thru and thru but the veneer was added to make a more expensive "looking" piece. Your furniture may be solid wood but it wasn't as popular back then as it would be now. Put veneered furniture in your browser and there probably will be a better explanation of this.
lindac
18 years ago
The type of furniture you have has decorative veneer added to the solid wood of the construction/body of the piece.
If you take some mineral spirits and an old rag and clean it ( that won't remove the finish, just any greasy and waxy build up) I think you will find there are different woods in the decorative veneered pieces.
Veneered wood has been used in a lot of high end furniture for hundreds of years and continues to be. It's a way of decorating the piece, using woods and reains that would not be structurally sound, or that would be so very expensive as to be prohibitave to use for 1/2 inch boards, when the 1/2 inch table top can be made of poplar and veneered with walnut burl or pecan or another decorative wood.
Your piece is solid wood, with veneer on top, in some spots.
Linda C
User
18 years ago
Veneered does NOT always look like the Ikea stuff.

Veneer over plywood or solid wood of a different species was very common. Some pretty wood is not structurally sound (too brittle, prone to warping or splitting, etc.) so it is veneered onto something that is not as pretty that doesn't have the problems.

All of that "waterfall" rounded stuff is veneer over bent plywood - the same machines that made plywood wings ofr airplanes were adapted for making furniture.

But, you have to be careful to not screw up the veneer when you clean up an old piece.

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