Dating furniture dovetail joints
09-May-2020 14:33
Most popular toward the end of the 19th century, close-grained oak was often quarter-sawn, or cut to promote a particularly even grain, reducing the possibility of warping and increasing durability.
Especially if your desk has remained in a single family and has not had restorative care, the assembly may offer clues to the manufacturer and therefore the age of the desk.
Especially if your desk, like many sold in the "Sears, Roebuck & Co." or "Montgomery Ward" catalogs from the 1880s to the end of the 1920s, was factory-built, you may recognize it by its measurements as much as by its design.