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Showing posts with label tiger maple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tiger maple. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Bum's Rush


Sometimes Mother Nature gives you a day
of such splendid beauty that it paralyzes you;
all you can do is look in awe at her handiwork.


Well, okay.  Full disclosure:
that's my excuse for not ticking off the "to-do" items on my list today.
I was too busy being awe-ful.  :-)


But I did tackle this little problem: 

 "Just washed my chair, and can't do a thing with it!"

Back around Memorial Day, Howard and I went to a 
country auction, and scored some old rush-seated chairs.
For $4 apiece.
Well, wouldn't you?

They are all maple, all slightly different in their turnings,
all 19th century, and all very sturdy, and in decent shape.


If you don't count the woven rush.


What to do?
Like many women, I do what works, not necessarily what should be done.
So I got hold of some brown duct tape.
What would we do without duct tape?
(We once rebuilt a closet with it. Really. Ask our daughter Alida.)

3 of the 4 chairs had relatively minor rush damage.  
Like this.
Easy-peasy.

But one of them was crazy-wild damaged.

It looked like Albert Einstein's hair.

Even Gilda had her doubts.
"Nice tiger maple, Mom, but that rush?  Really?"
I started with the less-damaged seats, and duct-taped
the rush back on.  Then I tackled Einstein.
He took a lot of tape.
Bottom AND top.
(Yes, Gilda, we see you napping.)

What am I going to do with these chairs now that the rush is no
longer blowing in the wind?  The duct tape ain't a good look.

Easy.  I'll sew some seat cushions for the chairs,
little slipcovers that will come down over all 4 sides
of the seats, covering the incriminating duct tape.

What about fabric?
Plain linen?  Canvas?  Buffalo check?  Ticking stripe?
Toile?  Plaid?  Floral?  Leopard or Zebra?
Smiley face print?  :-)

Dylan says he doesn't care.
Isn't that just like a man?

See you tomorrow! -- Cass


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Oh Country Auction, How I Love Thee!



"SOLD! to number 26."

Howard and I heard that a lot on Saturday, as we bid, and bid,
and bid some more at a wonderful auction in New Jersey's
Hunterdon County, where the horsey folk live.


The skies were threatening, and fewer than 50 people showed up.
Good news for the auction bidders.
Bad news for the auctioneer and the homeowner;
so many of her beautiful things went for far below their value.


For instance, that china in the above picture?
That's old Booth's china, made in England between
1912 and the '30s, in the Dragon Green pattern.
Service for 8.  $5 a place setting.  $40 for the whole shebang.

And it's mine, all mine.
Poor deluded Howard thought I'd bought it for the antiques booth.
Oh, ho, ho, ho.  The poor dear innocent.

See this cupboard, below?
It is tiger maple, and was custom made by a local
Hunterdon County cabinetmaker in the 1970s.  It is to die for.
And as soon as we can figure out how to transport it,
it's coming to live at That Old House.  Another surprise for Howard!

But
we did buy things -- lots of things -- for the booth.

Like this reproduction hunt board, or tall sideboard, below.
Each drawer locks and has its own key, and the drawers
are set up to house your valuable silverware.

We snagged a primitive blanket chest, 6-board,
with traces of old red paint.  Love it, but it's in the booth.


Other things we got include . . . a Queen Anne tea table, a Hickory wing chair in like-new shape, a perfect Federal settee upholstered in pink silk -- oh it is SO gorgeous -- Chinese porcelain fishbowl planters, brass trays, oil paintings, watercolors, needlepoints, a huge old stoneware crock, several beautiful lamps, a Majolica style luncheon set, another sideboard, mahogany, that because it was missing the bail on one handle sold for $15, and on and on and on.  OH, some gorgeous monogrammed and heavily laced old napkins, some tablecloths, an old handstitched quilt, a chamber pot, an ironstone soup tureen, a bit of carnival glass . . . . and some of these things set us back a whole dollar.

Howard and I had a blast.  After the auction we stuffed what we
could into the red minivan and headed off to empty things
into the booth, where we ran out of room!

So goodbye, my friends, we're heading back to Somerville to
price the new things, and re-jigger the booth.
I am an auction junkie now! -- Cass 

P.S.  The pictures in this post are from the auction listing by the auctioneer -- Robert Heller Auctions.  I hope they don't mind my using them!  I'll be checking out their other auctions in the future.