Arts and Crafts find #2

This free-standing wardrobe was lovely too. This had no inlays, but simple carved motifs on either side of the central door. £80 buys a nice chunk f beautiful hardwood to rescue the work of past artisans and rework it into something more useful, perhaps a smaller cupboard or cabinet, using the rest of the wardrobe to supply the remaining wood needed.

To carve this motif you need only a couple of carving gouges and only hand pressure to develop the pillowed relief. This wardrobe has solid oak structural frames with inlaid panels, but not quarter sawn. Theframe is draw-bored mortise and tenon construction throughout, which makes it very sturdy.

I quite like carving. Especially simple pieces like this. Some years ago I was commissioned for some restoration motifs for a project in the US. They were made from basswood (lime wood UK) and painted. I was invited to the grand opening but couldn’t make it.

I like the challenge of different work even though at the time it really takes something to work through the difficult stages. I used only three gouges and a couple of carving knives to carve these.

The ones I carved replaced five that were missing from mansion restoration project, which cost a mere $18,000,000 to restore. The motifs took me about two weeks (if I remember rightly) to make them and I learned a great deal about the people that carved the originals from the tool marks left in the original I copied.