The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

In this country the close of the World War marked a notable revival of interest in Renaissance furniture, and in the Italian style, was reproduced extensively for the hall, the dining room and living room. Unfortunately the polychrome form of decoration was over-emphasized, making it rather too ornate and florid for steady diet, especially as the average modern room is too small to afford a background comparable to the vast, high-ceilinged apartments of the Florentine and Genoese nobles.

The artisans of the Renaissance period, of whatever nationality, knew nothing of our modern wood finishing methods except possibly with respect to color work. The solid wood was patiently rubbed and rubbed with vegetable oil until it glowed with the soft mellow glow we associate with wax or velvet. But when not repeatedly so treated, as was often the case, the wood pores collected dust and took on a grayish appearance. It is this effect, with those resulting from centuries of wear or neglect, that we attempt to reproduce today with modern materials, the shade depending on the wood employed.

Brown Italian walnut requires the deep antique shade of stain, high-lighted, left unfilled and finished with clear wax over a thin film of lacquer or shellac. Gray Italian walnut calls for a one-tone gray stain with a slight brown cast, the pores partly filled with gray wood filler, protected as for the brown. Italian gray oak is stained about the same shade as mission weathered oak, high-lighted, shellaced and finished with gray liquid wax. Italian red oak is stained a reddish brown mission color, highlighted, shellaced and finished with clear wax. All of the finish should have an antique appearance with a soft lustre and the least possible body of film.

Polychrome is appropriate on all but the red oak and may be applied to all turnings, flutings and carvings in red, green, blue and gold. An egg and dart moulding, to cite an example, may be painted in alternate colors on the egg designs, the arrows in gold, the depressions in black or brown and the whole antique glazed and high-lighted.