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Chippendale Game Table with needlepoint top


Wm. R. Robertson

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Back in the 80's I built a pair of these game tables and my mother did the needlework tops, for more on the needlepoint see in textiles

 

http://www.fineminiaturesforum.com/index.php?/topic/38-needlepoint-top-chippendale-game-table/

 

The tables were made from Swiss pear wood and carved in the Philadelphia Chippendale style.

 

Details include ball & claw feet with toenails acanthus leaves on the knees, a turned urn with swags and tassels, a reverse swirl above that. A bird cage mechanism for tilting and turning and a working latch machined from brass and screwed in place.

 

One of these in the collection of the National Museum of Toys & Miniatures and other is in the artists collection.

 

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excellent detailing! I especially love the swags on the centre urn. They are very delicate and proportional. Also spotted you 'clocked' the screws on the latch, something that keeps carpenters debating whether or not you should do. Guess it's no issue in miniature so  i'm pleased to see you went for the looks ;)

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Btw, the finish on this piece looks lovely too! May I ask if you've a preferred sequence of products you use?

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Thanks for the comments. Debbie, I have been finishing stuff the same way since I started. Even out of the same gallon can of lacquer. I first stain, then spray 4 to 6 thin coats of lacquer with a airbrush. Let dry a few days and carefully rub out with very fine steel wool and rug wool……. I have been using these same supplies for 37 years, the cans are getting pretty old and dried up. One thing that is very important is I use the good quality lacquer thinner, not the junk they sell in the hardware store.

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Your turning and carving are so crisp and clear, love the latch. My husband helped me made some two years ago, not nearly as nice as yours, funny, I took my unfinished tilt top table out last weekend to work on it after it has been languishing in a box for the last two years and was thinking I should make a new latch since I learned a lot of metal working techniques from you the last two years. We made it with a spring so that it can stay in the locked position. My table top are not thick enough to take screws though, guess one can fake that :-)

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  • 4 years later...

If you are making a round table top, and you want to put screws in the table top for the latch, what thickness would you use for the table top?

The knob allows a mechanism to push back so that it actually latches?  I can imagine tapping the "catch" and using a die for the turned knob... am I on the right 'crooked' path?

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Tamra, on my latch I glued nails into the holes and filed them flush with the latch's bottom surface and then just glued it to the table top. My table top was too thin to drill holes into it. If you are going to put petitpoint on top I would rivet the latch as nobody would see it once the petitpoint is inserted.

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