Skg info on 19thc Bureau, MA

I've had a lot of time to ruminate on this piece. My speculation? Some guy who built furniture went to a mill that used a bandsaw and got his lumber there. He (or maybe he and his family members) made pieces he wanted to make, the way he wanted to do it, mostly by hand. Hence all the odd bits and handwork, even when everywhere around him the work was becoming more mechanized. He was someone who didn't care for giving up his hand plane and cutting dovetails himself. If that was the case, I bet he made his family bananas. Because guys like that live today. I would still like to find him. I plan to take care of his work.

 

that's the ticket...... thank you for your patience !!

 

You could be right, but I disagree. This does not look homemade to me, it looks mid to late 19th century factory made to me. There was a population explosion in the US in that time, so tons of factory furniture production going on.

This piece requires dovetails, paneling, veneering, scrollwork, case work and turning; a homeowner doing all this when he could just buy the piece premade would have been quite unusual. Nothing I see is hand-done, but it requires a lot of different power and hand tools. Which is exactly what you would have gotten from a 19th century factory.