Please help with old bureau

Discussion in 'Furniture' started by Mill Cove Treasures, Oct 15, 2014.

  1. Mill Cove Treasures

    Mill Cove Treasures Well-Known Member

    This piece is in rough condition. I'm asking more for educational purposes. My guess is early 1900s. Am I close? What type of wood is this made of? I thought it was pine stained to look like mahogany but another family member thought it was flame mahogany. Thank you in advance.

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    spirit-of-shiloh likes this.
  2. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    Looks like about 1900-1910 to me too. I can see Greg wanting to get his hands on that to mess with.
     
  3. spirit-of-shiloh

    spirit-of-shiloh Well-Known Member

    I think gorgeous "as is", love it :cat:
     
  4. gregsglass

    gregsglass Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    Looks like it is missing it's mirror or more likely a backsplash. I would not mess with it, just clean it up and remove the castors. It is a nice simple useful chest. It was abused with too much clothes stuffed it and the castors were on a carpet. The pulling back and forth loosened the drawer front thus the nails between the dovetails. It would most likely sell better with a mustard yellow base coat and a dark green crackle glaze. oh well
    greg
     
  5. daveydempsey

    daveydempsey Moderator Moderator

    Over here that would be known as a 3 drawer chest, I note the word bureau has a different meaning in North America.

    This is an antique bureau as known in the rest of the world.

    georgian-oak-bureau-1639-L.jpg
     
    spirit-of-shiloh and gregsglass like this.
  6. silverthwait

    silverthwait Well-Known Member

    The whole point of casters is to obtain mobility. The problem is that, if they appear as above, the furniture is pigeon-toed. If the wheels go the other way, one stubs one's toe. If straight on, one can accidentally move the thing and it, or you, can go flying across the room.
     
  7. Mill Cove Treasures

    Mill Cove Treasures Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the replies everyone. Gregg, yes, it definitely had a mirror or back board at one time.

    Davey, thanks I never knew that. I always see those listed here as Governor Winthrop Desks.

    I lived in London for a short time many years ago and had to get acquainted with the the different meanings and the slang. One very strange conversation with a friend comes to mind, he said he was "pissed" and I thought he was upset, not drunk :hungover:. He said he was so pissed, he couldn't make it up the apples. Huh??? It took a while but I finally realized he was saying he was to drunk to get upstairs. :wacky:
     
  8. Mill Cove Treasures

    Mill Cove Treasures Well-Known Member

    Silverthwait, been there! Only it was a small loveseat. As the other person sat down, it moved backwards, I ended up on the floor. Ouch.
     
    silverthwait likes this.
  9. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    On the other hand, you can always just twist them a bit and move the piece. If you do remove them, put them in an envelope in the bottom drawer. That way if someone wants to put them back, they can.
     
  10. silverthwait

    silverthwait Well-Known Member

    Or, one can always buy those thingles in the hardware store made for the purpose. Or, actually, I suppose the original purpose was to keep legs from tearing up the carpet?

    They look like wooden butter pats.

    And there used to be glass ones -- which seemed rather strange...
     
    spirit-of-shiloh likes this.
  11. spirit-of-shiloh

    spirit-of-shiloh Well-Known Member

    I remember as a kid we had the brown butter pat looking things under all our legged furniture,looking back I wonder what kind of plastic it was since they were not wood ? Also,we had hard wood floors with just an oriental carpet here and there.
     
  12. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    We had the glass ones; they were meant to keep furniture from denting carpets and floors. We had round dents in the carpet instead.
     
  13. Mill Cove Treasures

    Mill Cove Treasures Well-Known Member

    Any idea what kind of wood it is?
     
  14. gregsglass

    gregsglass Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    The glass ones were not made to keep the carpet from "denting" it was to keep the metal castors from leaving rust stains on the carpeting.People did not have AC and the humidity would drip off the metal and rust.
    greg
     
  15. silverthwait

    silverthwait Well-Known Member

    Aha! I did not know that!

    I love factoids. The challenge is, once one has a new one, how quickly can one find a way to casually insert it into the conversation.

    "Speaking of butter pats..." Or, "Rust on the Chevy? Did you know..."
     
  16. Messilane

    Messilane Well-Known Member

    As a child, we had hardwood floors, so the thingies under our furniture were metal "butter pats" with carpet on the bottoms so the legs wouldn't scratch the floors.
     
  17. 42Skeezix

    42Skeezix Moderator Moderator

    Greg...I didn't know that. I too thought they were just for carpet dents.

    I love factoids.

    And you never know where oddball factoids will turn up. There is a well known punk/metal band called Snapcase. One of the members MUST be an antique bottle collector. A snapcase is a tool used to hold bottles, jars, and other blown items during the finishing/lipping process in the days when bottles were hand blown pre 1900. That, as far as I can find, is the ONLY meaning for a snapcase. This bit of arcania would only be known to a serious antique bottle/blown glass collector.

    I got a real kick when I first heard of 'em 'cause I KNEW there was a collector there somewhere.
     
  18. silverthwait

    silverthwait Well-Known Member

    Skeez - I just looked them up. They have had troodles of players replacing players replacing players. Trying to find which one would be a problem -- unless of course, you know someone who knows someone...
     
  19. Messilane

    Messilane Well-Known Member

    Would probably only need to know the names of the original ones.
     
  20. DragonflyWink

    DragonflyWink Well-Known Member

    Not a single word, but the sturdy little knives used to open watches are often called 'snap case knives' - personally, would have guessed the band was named after the mad Lord Snapcase in Pratchett's 'Discworld' books...

    ~Cheryl
     
    afantiques likes this.
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