Empire Game Table (Part 1)

Recently we acquired a vintage game table that was in need of some serious reconditioning.  Looking at the acquisition we determined that it probably was not a piece spirited away from some museum gallery even though its appearance might have suggested some kind of hidden value if it had been accompanied by documentation.  That aside, we decided to tackle the job secure in the knowledge that if we did this we weren't washing away historical provenance and emasculating an iconic side table in Napoleon Bonaparte's bedroom.

It really is a beautiful example of empire craftsmanship.  It has a single, circular, pedestal base supported by lion's paw feet.  Closed, it is a rectangular table that can open easily and convert to a square top for a friendly game of cards or whatever.  Enclosed is an accessory drawer for miscellaneous sundry items (i.e.: cards, score cards, pencils, pens...smokes). 

The object sat for a while until we decided what to do with it; were we doing the right thing by refinishing it?  Long story short, the decision was made to proceed.  The base seemed to be fairly easy.  Since it was an old piece I assumed there to be several coats of lacquer applied to the base and it hadn't looked like anyone had cared too much about it for some time.  So I assumed that there wasn't some feeble attempt back in the seventy's to refurbish the piece by brushing on layer upon layer of poly urethane over the old finish, countless years of dirt, cigar smoke residue, food, moon dust, or whatever else you can imagine.

I was correct; it was lacquer.  The top finish easily melted away under the attack of the solvent.  I was worried that the beautiful grain that could be seen was a faux application and that the solvent would melt that away as well revealing a bland sort of homogenized fried fish look.  I was very pleased this wasn't the case and what was revealed was actually a nicer visual appearance.  I would later take advantage of this when highlighting the grain and selecting color and sheen.  The next step was a true judgement call that deserved more than less thought: what product to use in the resurrection of this gem.

I worked as a representative for one of the finest furniture manufacturers in the known galaxy or at least this side of Alpha Centauri: Kindel Furniture.  Kindel has been around for over a hundred years but it didn't really step into the ultra high end until the leadership of Robert Fogarty.  Mr. Fogarty took charge in the late seventy's, acquired the coveted licence as the sole producer of accessioned objects at the Winterthur Museum (outside of Wilmington Delaware) and established it as a household brand for the rich and famous. 

Armed with this kind of clout, it only made sense that with a bit more thought I could avoid the trap of buying stains and finishes from big box retailers like Home Depot & Lowes.  Don't get me wrong, I love these stores and have (and will) spend many hours at them roaming the aisles looking for needles in haystacks pretending that it's me and not some marketing effort to keep me there longer so I'll buy more.  They most assuredly have their place and should be revered, enjoyed, and patronized for what they are; we'll be that much the poorer if they vanish from the landscape.  But I didn't want to use mass marketed finishes available to everyone.  So, with the experience I had in the high end furniture business I jogged my memory and conjured up mental images of my visits to the different factory tours, factory sales, sales training et al.  From that soup of memories emerged Mohawk stains & finishes; a-ha! now we're talking!  Needed to find this stuff & needed to prove what I was already convinced of:  that it was worthy of use.

Mohawk Stains and Finishes are phenomenally easy to work with and possess attributes other finishes don't.  These stains come in a variety of colors and seem to bring out a luster that I've failed to recognize in all the years I've worked with other coatings. 

Getting back to the game table, once the old finish was washed off I applied a medium walnut stain and worked it in over a day or so taking my time to observe it in different light, at different times during the day, and at different angles.  Ironically, something that ostensibly sounds so mundane and boring, I found very relaxing.  I guess it was the appeal of taking something neglected and tired, tossed aside, forgotten and breathing life back into it.  How often in ones life do they feel this way?  Forgotten, tossed aside, trivialized, having a sense of greatness but only perceiving never realizing.  Michelangelo's image of God touching the listless Adam, breathing life into his creation lends somewhat of an understanding to what the appeal may be.  Yes, that's very "Over done" isn't it, but it's a strange sensation and to have to explain it means the recipient would never understand it.

Next came the sheen.  Should we go high, low, medium; what?  I always tend to steer away from high sheens because for as much as I love them the gloss tends to be so un-forgiving to anything underneath.  Glossy sheen reflect everything so any imperfection under the coating will stand out.  With restorations like this, that may not be such a good thing; we wouldn't want to detract from the credit that's due this project.  At the same time, I really didn't want to go with a low sheen matte finish only because it sometimes looks a little "Plastic-Y".  Not to say high sheen can't look that way either but hey that's why this is an art form, right?  If it were just a matter of "a cup off this and a dash of that" then we'd have meatloaf at the end of the day; am I right or what?  The decision was made to go with semi-gloss; don't ask me why...you wouldn't like the answer and I "Might" feel dumb.  Personally, It was a home run. It did everything I thought the other sheens would do by themselves but couldn't accomplish alone.