‘17th-century Essex County Cupboard’ Paint & Drawer-front Carving

Any moment now, we’re expecting an email that Peter Follansbee’s new book, “17th-Century Essex County Cupboard” will be arriving at the warehouse. So here’s an excerpt from Chapter 8, on decoration.

– Fitz

The cupboard’s decoration includes integral mouldings on some of the framing parts, applied mouldings on the door, panels, drawers and around both cases, carving on one drawer front, applied turnings all over in the form of pilasters, ovals, rounds and drops, and paint. I do some of this work as I’m framing the cupboard (the integral mouldings), some ahead of time (the carved drawer fronts). The applied stuff you can work on at various stages during the project, or save them all up for after assembly. I tend to work that stock up as I go; it’s easy enough to find time between tasks to make a few runs of moulding or some turnings.

I attached all of the applied work with hide glue, with the thought that it makes repairs/replacements easier than if I were to use yellow glue. Most of the turnings and oak mouldings also have small, headless brads fastening them as well. This follows the originals. This is one case where I use machine-made cut nails, 7/8″ long. No sense having a blacksmith make such small nails that you’ll never really see. Bore pilot holes. These are smaller than any of my drill bits, so I cut the head off a wire brad and used it as a bit in an eggbeater drill. Worked fine. If you use cut nails, remove their heads too. There’s less chance of splitting something that way.

Whether both gluing and nailing are necessary is open to debate. I don’t get involved. I sometimes wonder if the brads were to hold the pieces in place while the glue sets.

Paint
All of the applied turnings and most of the mouldings are painted black. I always paint the turnings before attaching them. The mouldings I’ve done every which way – painted before mitering, after attachment and other schemes too. Once I felt it was best to make the mouldings, paint them as long sticks, then cut and fit them right away. But I had a hard time seeing my marks for mitering on the black mouldings, so some were cut into individual pieces, then painted. You’ll see some painted and some unpainted being applied. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

I mix dry pigments in linseed oil and thinner. These days, I use cold-pressed linseed oil and citrus thinner. The linseed oil is slow to dry, so I add a little Japan drier or drying medium to speed things up. I don’t measure anything; I start with the pigment, then drop in the oil/thinner and start mixing the two. Most modern pigments are fine and dissolve easily. I just use the brush I’ll be painting with to stir. Once the pigment has dissolved in the oil, I add several drops of the drier and mix it in as well. I don’t like having leftover paint, so I tend to make small batches. Depending on how many pieces I have ready for painting, I might make a couple of batches in one session.

Thin coats dry better than thicker ones, and often it takes two coats of paint to get the finish right. For this cupboard, one of my painting sessions had more than 100 pieces. I paint them, then lay them on a board to dry. Try to keep them in a warm, dry spot for a few days. Once the first coat is done, burnish the parts with steel wool, abrasive pads or even a bundle of fine, dry shavings. Then repeat the whole process.

Carved Drawer Front
The carved drawer front is 4-1/4″ x 36″ wide and has a series of alternating lunettes with an abbreviated fleur-de-lis pattern. This example is not cut with a V-tool, which will make those who struggle with this tool happy. There are three blocks of the carving across the drawer front, interrupted by two blank fields that enclose the drawer pulls.

Many period carvings have painted backgrounds; this example has the foreground painted. The first time I made this cupboard, I painted it after carving. The second time around, I painted the planed drawer front, then did the layout and carving into the painted surface. Cutting out the background left the contrasting raw wood behind the painted surface.

Lay out margins top, bottom and sides, and the two areas for the pulls. Then a horizontal centerline. Use a compass to scribe the arcs that define the upper and lower lunettes. You can walk the compass along, alternating above and below the centerline. Once all the initial arcs are done, set the compass for the inner arcs. These must stem from the original center points. Pick the compass up and scribe all these inner arcs.

I used a wide, shallow gouge to step around the outer arcs, and a slightly narrower one for the inner arcs. Then I used a deeply curved small gouge to define the fleur-de-lis. This carving is shallower than most 17th-century carvings I’ve seen. Another feature of it is the recessed background; it is finished, with no large facets showing.

I lean toward painting before carving. Both approaches work. It’s easier to paint the flat board than to paint around the carving. Any carving mishaps you can usually touch up with paint after. One nice thing about painting first is that you immediately see the effects as you carve.