Victorian Parlor Table

I am not sure the title correctly names this project. I loved these very elaborate Victorian tables all over Illinois and Wisconsin. They were abundant in the antique shops I visited there. They all commanded a large price by Navy pay standards.

As luck would have it, one day in 2002 I was visiting a shop owner I had become friendly with and mentioned the tables. He had one in the back that he was going to try to restore. I went and had a look at it. Lying in the floor was a pile of walnut pieces and a marble top with no chips or cracks. It looked to be all there, so we settled on a price, $115.00, a lot for a pile of old parts. I took my treasure to the Wood Workers Shop.

I completely disassembled and cleaned the parts and began to repair and reassemble it. I discovered that there were a few parts missing and broken, and of course they were the fancy veneered and round fluted corner parts. To make things worse all but one of the rosettes on the bottom of the legs were missing. I had never tackled these woodworking task before. I charged ahead learning as I went. I managed to make all the repairs and missing parts.

I found a bit to cut new rosettes and ordered burl veneers to cut replacements from. The burl I purchased was not nearly as figured as the original but I patched and replaced it anyway. I am glad to say that I really have to look closely to see my repairs. I finished it in lacquer and it stands proudly in what my wife tells me is the “sitting room”.(code word for den) It survived a long wet winter ride from Chicago to Alabama in an open trailer and is still going strong.

-- Terry Roswell, L.A. (Lower Alabama) "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."