AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Contemporary Accoutrements => Topic started by: Shreckmeister on May 13, 2011, 10:09:02 PM
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Neat...how about a few more details...the 4-W's...you know, who made it, when, where, and what from? Looks pretty interesting..
TCA
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As a repro, the though part might be documenting the circular saw blade marks on the plank, especially given the radius of the blade used to cut this plank. It partially depends on where the piece was supposed to have originated. Circular blade marks give furniture authenticators fiddly fits. :-\
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Suzkat,
PLEASE understand I am not trying to rain on your parade or be critical of you, personally. From your other postings, it seems you are trying to do things authentically and put together a nice collection of things - perhaps in a living history type setting? This is why I'm typing this reply. I am not an "expert" on early American furniture, but I have studied it a lot.
The legs of your bench appear to be "Shaker" legs. Shakers did not begin selling their furniture until around 1789, but they sold completed pieces. It is my understanding the top of your bench would not have been viewed as acceptable to a Shaker furniture maker. They did not leave saw marks on even their most mundane pieces and they did not leave the edges of the plank rough on outside benches.
It is possible that Shaker legs could have been "reclaimed" from a Shaker table or bench when the rest of the piece got ruined and someone added the rather rough plank top. If that was done, there were only 11 years in the 18th century for the bench to have been made that way. So it is very difficult to attribute a bench like this to the 18th century. Early 19th century would be much more likely as the earliest date.
I have haunted antique stores up and down the East Coast since the early 70’s. A piece like this could easily have been in some of the stores of the unscrupulous dealers who made up all kinds of “Authentic 18th Century Furniture” from pieces/parts of original pieces, pieces of Centennial era 18th century reproductions, and new wood pieces. I have seen a LOT of pieces like that over the years. Antique dealers don’t know just how many such fake pieces were slapped together and sold to unwary/uneducated buyers – especially around the Bicentennial. PLEASE understand I am not accusing you of doing that, though.
If you would like to alter the piece to make it more correct for the 18th century, the first thing I would suggest is hand plane the top of the bench so the circular saw marks are planed out. I’m not sure if you have enough plank to dress up the sides and still fit the carriage for the legs to make it more correct for a Shaker piece. You may not wish to go to the trouble to do either and that is entirely up to you. I only mention these things if you would like to make it more authentic to the period.
Gus
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I will second Articifers comments above.
I am descinded from Kentucky Shakers, let's just say I have a grandfather in my ancestry that as a young man couldn't control certain desires and got expelled from their community. Those legs do have a Shaker look to them.
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If that is a repro, where can we view the original?
Dale H
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What makes it a shooting bench as opposed to just a bench?
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We're all trying to respond to a subject line and some photos without any supporting text. We are being forced to make some assumptions. It would be nice if more info was forthcoming, otherwise it's kind of a futile exercise. :-\
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Gentlemen, A friend of mine made this table and I liked the looks so I posted it for you to see with his description. He told me "copied from a Table in a Book Published in 1924- Early Primitive New England Furniture" It's not mine or for
my collection. I just thought it was nice looking. Ya'll are reading way too much into this like Kermit says.
When I spend days hunting down another Shreckengost rifle to post pictures of,
I get 130 people reading it and no appreciation for the effort, not even a comment. Now I post a nice looking bench and nothing but criticism. Wondering if my time might be better spent on other pursuits.
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Suzkat, keep the faith. There are a number of us (well at least one) who appreciate your quest for the elusive Shreckengost and the related accoutrements. The bench did look nice and I understood it to be a modern interpretation, wold like to make one like it.
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Now it's a table? Or is it still a bench?
Why would someone go to the trouble of building a table /bench just to shoot it?
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Gentlemen, A friend of mine made this table and I liked the looks so I posted it for you to see with his description. He told me "copied from a Table in a Book Published in 1924- Early Primitive New England Furniture" It's not mine or for
my collection. I just thought it was nice looking. Ya'll are reading way too much into this like Kermit says.
When I spend days hunting down another Shreckengost rifle to post pictures of,
I get 130 people reading it and no appreciation for the effort, not even a comment. Now I post a nice looking bench and nothing but criticism. Wondering if my time might be better spent on other pursuits.
First, I would like to point out that I did not just offer criticism, but rather both a possible explanation of how a similar original piece could have come to be made in the period and two more ways to make it more authentic to the 18th century.
I don’t have any antique furniture books from the 20’s, but I do have one from the 30’s and three or four from the 40’s and more recent ones as well. I do know that some furniture in the earlier books was incorrectly identified as to date, location made and sometimes as to the century the furniture was made. It was not meant as fakery, but rather the information provided on some pieces from family history was just not correct and the authors did not know or did not point out the incorrect or put-together pieces.
The Henry Ford museum was fooled as late as 1970 when they bought the now famous “Brewster Chair.” I remember when it was announced they acquired it and there was a buzz all over the American Antique Furniture world that someone had found a truly historic early 17th century piece. However, it turned out to be something someone made to look old. .
“The Brewster Chair
In 1970, Henry Ford Museum purchased a remarkable 17th century armchair from an antiques dealer who stumbled upon it sitting in the parlor of a house in Maine. It was a massive, throne-like chair made up of spindles, a type long associated with one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Brewster. Unfortunately, after its purchase, an extensive analysis of the chair proved it to be a modern fake. Henry Ford Museum keeps the chair as an educational tool.
Made: ca. 1969
ID: 70.65.“
http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/furnished.aspx
To suggest this piece as it stands is a good 18th century repro, would be like saying your GGGG Grandpa Ben Schrecengost 1788-1865: built a rifle when he was 11 years old (to get it into the 18th century date). Such a thing is possible, but I bet your ancestor would have chuckled had someone suggested your Ancestor had done it, when your ancestor was living.
I did not intend to cut down the repro bench, but rather offer ways to improve it and make it more likely to be what may have been assembled in the 18th century, if the person who made it cared about that.
Very best of luck tracking down original rifles made by your Ancestor, though. I think it is a marvelous thing you are doing for your own family history and for the general knowledge of the collector community.
Gus
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Im confused...but then that happens to me alot.. ;D...is the bench a copy of an old documented "shooting bench"? Or is it a copy of an old table...a copy that is now being used by your friend as an accoutrement; ie: a shooting bench...? In that case a few more details like dimensions, construction techniques, and pros and cons of using this particular bench might be pretty interesting...I mean, in recent times antique wooden ironing boards were often employed as shooting benches too, but to avoid misunderstandings, I suppose I better explain some of that as well if I plan to post a photo of an old ironing board.
TC