Sheraton Secretary-Bookcase

The piece was the subject of an article I wrote in the Pins and Tales on line journal. It is a "Sheraton Secretary-Bookcase- About 1800" Listed as courtesy of Mrs. Phillip L mOrrison of Madison, VA, from the Carlisle Lynch drawings. Primary wood is mahogany with satinwood cross banding, holly string inlay and bellflowers and crotch mahogany veneer. Secondary woods are white pine and poplar. There is also a leather inlay in the writing surface with folds down. The doors each have 11 separately cut pieces of wavy glass, salvaged form an 1850 home, and glazed in place. The original had simple line inlay on the legs. The bellflowers are my own embellishment. Also the satinwood inlay ws rectangular and I made it rounded. I changed the banding to be arrow banding and carried the crotch mahogany veneer up onto the cornice.

The glaze which was white was painted over with acrylic paint mixed with earth pigments to roughly match the wood color. The finish was accomplished by coloring with lime (sprayed) to selectively darken the mahogany without affecting the inlays. (although different chemical effects resulted in different coloration of different pieces. The color had to be corrected with a combination of aniline dyes and earth pigments to match various sections.) The top coat French polish.