Featured Help with Sideboard (Huntboard?)

I'm looking to get some help with this. I picked up this table for refinishing from a good commercial customer. At first look I thought it was original. But when I got it to the shop I began to think it was a very good reproduction. The reason is that the drawers don't have that musty smell, the insides and undersides of everything appears to be painted, and the finish just looks too good.

My question is: Is it original? By that I mean is it late 18th or early 19th century. That's all I want to know, because if it is it shouldn't be stripped. I'm not worried about the value or what it's called. I just don't want to the anything that will hurt the value of the piece.

Thanks for your help on this.

 

Hola, and welcome. Plenty of furniture brainiacs here... they'll be along. Good luck!
Great photos, in my un-learned-furniture opinion!

 

Is there anywhere on the piece where you can see the thickness of the veneer? I think the general rule is: the thinner the veneer, the newer the piece. I think 18th C pieces should have veneers about 1/8" thick, because they would have been hand sawn. But that's just something I've heard.

The boards on the drawer bottom certainly look machine cut.

 

There is a hand-carved mark on the back inside drawer of "VH"



I'm confused by the last picture - is that the side of the drawer in the previous image? it's oak, which is not something that would be use in a newer piece.

 

The dovetailing on the drawer is very minimal.

 

This is old but how old is hard to say. I believe it to be English in origin and they did some of this hand work later than we did here. I think at least Pre-WWII. It looks to have already been refinished at some point.

 

The last pic is the side of the drawer pictured in the previous picture. As to the veneer, there's no place where the veneer is loose, so it's hard to determine thickness.

 

Without seeing it in person, it can be hard sometimes to really tell. There are many on this board who are much more knowledgeable than me, but I would say there is some good age to it. I doubt you are looking at 18th century, but early to mid 19th century is a likely possibility. The dovetailing on the drawers is really hard to see. I think I see a thin dovetail pin in the middle of the drawer, which definitely places it before machined dovetails appeared in the late 1800s. The beveling on the bottom of the drawer also is an indicator that you might be looking at a piece pre mid 19th century. The legs appear to be Hepplewhite or Sheraton, but can be a later reproduction of a Hepplewhite or Sheraton piece. These reproductions happened regularly in the US in the early to mid 1800s. If there was a tag/marking on it that identifies it as English, that would tell you a lot. Of course not seeing it in person, I would probably say that it is a later copy of an old piece.

regardless, it looks well built and it is beautiful.

 

I very much like the style, whether old or newer. And I always learn something from furniture discussions!

 

It's a really elegant table. Perhaps a console table?