What color is treen? All About Treen, Part 1

What color is treen? What is attic surface? What turns wood dark, or light? How can I tell a refinish from an old surface? What really is old surface? Yikes!

 Look at all the colors of the woods above. Which one is a dry original surface? Which one is cleaned down? Which one was refinished? Which ones are whitened with old washing? For answers, see the end of this post.

Lets first ask, how does wood color naturally? Well, wood ages like we all do, by the action of air and heat on the surface. It is called oxidizing. If you've ever seen the inside of an old attic, the underside of the roof, and beams, that's all you need to know. The heat and the exposure to air will color the wood by the extreme action of the elements on the wood. Wood is a natural product, made of carbon and water, just like you and me. Leave us out in the sun,and what happens? We tan, we get age spots and freckles, and wrinkles, and well you get the idea. However, if we are carefully protected from heat and exposure to air, we will not get tan.

Here is a pic of some parts to the inside of 18th C grandfather clocks. But it is a perfect example of how being protected can prevent aging. Look at the left hand frame, and the lighter colored circle. That is where a round gear was attached for 200 years, so that part of the frame did not darken nearly as much as the rest of the frame.  Perfect example. And while we're here, look at the top edge of the bases of the frame. Now there's only one time that these protected, hidden parts of the clocks would be touched, when they were worked on. And you can clearly see on the top edges of the bases where the clockmaker would grab the base and lift the frame up and out of the clock to work on it. These clock parts make good examples, as you know they were never finished or refinished or touched in any way, as they would never show. Only time and air and heat and some dust falling through the cracks in the hood would affect the native NE hardwoods.

 Another action that affects color is dirt, dust etc. what we often call patina. Here is a fine early spice container, and look at the tops of the turnings. This is what we want to see, as think of a dusty old attic. The dust would fall on the top edges, so you want those top edges to be dark, from the patina of the ages. Look at the top of the foot, see, very dark. Look however at the knob, not so dark. Think fingers, and a dust cloth, as this piece did get some wear, maybe when it was taken out of the attic and made ready to sell.

Look at the knob on this gorgeous covered spice container. Look at the top surface of the foot, where the dirt and light will fall, and look how much darker it is than the top of the lid where a dust cloth will keep the surface lighter. And look at the ridge where the top joins the base, a nice place where fingers to apply a little polish. Remember, our fingers have a bit of natural oil, and we apply to whatever we touch.

Look at the great turnings on this bowl, and look at the nice wear on the base, just where you'd want to see it. You might ask, why so much color difference here? Here you are looking at an 18th C mahogany bowl with tremendous darkness from dirt and patina, see how very dark the depth of the turnings are. On the base, the constant wear and abrasion from use on a table would not only wear off the patina, its worn right down into the bare wood.

Here is that spice container again, and look how light in color the base is. It sat on that base for years with no use and it was protected from the air and heat.

We talked earlier about refinishing. Here is a sweet little salt that was I think cleaned  down. Look at the chisel marks on the inside, where the maker shaped the inside curves, and see how much darker they are. Why would that be? I think the whole piece was very dark, and someone in the past scrubbed or sanded the piece to clean or lighten it up. When you scrub or sand or steel wool, you really just take off the higher points, and unless you're very through, you leave the deeper areas dark and dirty as they were. So in this piece, you see the high points and edges are lighter, and the deeper areas are the original darker color.

 Here is another example of color of treen. This is the back of an early drysink I had. Look at how the untouched unfinished back darkened over time. Look at the lighter areas where it rubbed against the wall for hundreds of years. That is the natural light pine color, and the rest is darkened aged pine, attic surface. Think how hard this would be to fake. Always look carefully at the back and underside of an antique. Very few fakers do much to them. Maybe he'll do a coat of dark stain to make it look older, but no nice wear marks, mouse holes, dust and cobwebs. Look at the variety of wear marks, small and large, deep and shallow, and the wear under the edge where you would grab it to move it. Few fakers would go to this much trouble to make a back look genuine.

Here's another color of treen. This is an old cheese drainer. Look at the gray or ash colored surface of the wood. This could be caused by lye soap, which used ash. It could also be caused by the action of the rennet in cheese and dairy work. This is an honest color of treen, usually seen in kitchen and dairy items. While we're at it, lets look at the worm holes. See how unevenly they are distributed, just like the natural work of the worms. These you see on items stored in damp areas, where the bugs thrive. Thus you find them on antiques from Europe and New England, and rarely on antiques from the Midwest.

Look at the variations of color on these treen plates. On the two plates on the left, and the hanging plate you can see darks and lights distributed over the face of the plate. Light colors on the edges where they were more worn, and darkness inside the rims, where crud would accumulate. Look at the plate on the right. This nice tiger maple plate was refinished at some time, so the color is even all over the plate, no darks and lights from wear, but some shadows on the right from the lighting.

OK, here is the test picture again. Can you see the whitish tone of two of the cutting boards, due to lye soap? Can you see the white lines where lye soap accumulated in the lines of the scrub board? Do you remember our cleaned down small dark bowl? Now look at the even color of medium brown in the tall treen candlestick. Do you think it was refinished a while ago? We know it was quite a while ago, as there is beginning to be darkness on the top edges of the turnings from dust or soot. Look at the beautiful variations of color on the herb grinder, lights and darks, wear on the edges. Look at the variations of natural color on the dark walnut cutting board at the back.

Did you pass the test? Are you now an expert on attic surface? If I missed anything, leave me a comment, or email me at bluedogantiques@gmail.com, and I'll answer you back. Check back soon for part 2, about treen plates.

Hog Scraper Candlesticks

Here is a classic icon of American country style of decorating. What is a picture of a harvest table or painted dry sink without seeing a hog scraper candle stick on the top? You see them in all the books. But what are they? What are they made of, where do they come from, are there fakes out there and so on. Many questions for such a simple item.

The earlier hog scraper candle sticks actually were made in Europe, mostly in England, but also France and Holland. Most of the early lighting used in this country was made in Europe. This was partly because of the laws that prevented us from making our own, to protect the English manufacturers, and partly because our technology just wasn't advanced enough at the time. Hog scrapers, like much other lighting is made from tinned sheet iron, and it would take quite a force to make fine even sheets of iron, and then to mold the sheet of iron into the forms we love today. The first known patent for an American hog scraper was in 1853.

I think all the early hog scrapers had a hook extending from the top edge, called a hanger. This was to hang to candle stick from your chair back or a nearby shelf to get the light closer to your work or your book. Be careful, don't burn your wig! Actually, if you look you can sometimes see burn marks on the top slat of a chair or the the top of a settle. In the pic above on the right you can see a proper hanger. Hangers are always wider where they attach to the candle stick top. If not, see the bit about fakes below. On the left stick you can see where the original hanger was broken off. They often broke, partly I suppose because that part is fairly thin.

 Here is a pic of the base of the three main eras of hog scrapers. On the right is the earliest type, supposedly made in the 18th C. It has two "tabs" that come down through two slots in the base, and then are "cleated" or pounded over to hold the whole stick together. These 18th C sticks are the rarest on the market, as you might imagine. Maybe 1 in 50 hog scrapers are this early type. They also usually cost more. The middle base is from the classic form of hog scraper you usually see in pictures or in the market. They are made in the 19th C. still usually made in Europe. After the Revolution we began to make more of our own goods. This type has a nut that attaches to a screw that is inside the tube part, screwing it down tight to hold the whole stick together. Once in a while you see washers or other devices to hold the nut on tighter as it wore down from use. On the left is what is called the American hog scraper. These are generally considered to be made in the US. The metal is a little lighter, and you can see the ring that clips on and holds the whole thing together. So you see, if you look at the base, you can always date your hog scraper.

Here is the "donut" as seen on both the 18th and 19th C candle sticks.

Here is the ring that holds the American candle stick "tube" to the base.

Here is what is called the Wedding Band hog scraper. You can see the brass "wedding" band in the middle. Just a little glitter for that dark Colonial interior. Again these are fairly rare on the market. As you can imagine they cost more in the day, and fewer people could afford to buy them. Beware, beware! I can't find a pic to show you, but there are so many fake wedding bands out there. It is so easy to cut a hog scraper candle stick "shaft" and solder a brass ring in the middle. But if you look carefully, you can see the solder ring on each side of the brass one, which you cannot see in the old ones.

Here is a pic of a repro I copied off the internet. Note the long curved hanger. Even if this one had been left out in the rain and got rust and patina, even then you would be able to recognize it. Also, notice the donut is not made separate, but is one piece with the base.

References

Here a few good books I used and I recommend

Colonial Lighting                        Arthur Hayward  Dover

Candle Holders in American    Joseph Butler       Bonanza

Fire and Light in the Home       John Caspall         Antique Collector Club

My New Kitchen

Wow! Five years and finally done. I am putting up lots of pictures so you can see what we did. My goal was to have a kitchen that functioned like a fine gourmet kitchen, as I love to cook, and I have a lot of cooking toys to hide. The other thing I wanted was to have a kitchen that looked like a natural part of my 18th C house. I didn't want to see a nice looking old cupboard next to a stainless steel stove. To me that just is too jarring a contrast. So I wanted a calm look featuring old wood surfaces, original paint, antique plaster and the sunlight angling across the old surfaces. No interruptions of modern life visible. Did I succeed? You be the judge.

We added under counter lights  to highlight the old pine sheathing we used for back splashes. Can you see the hidden dishwasher, or the Viking cooktop, or the professional range vent?

 

Here is the hidden dishwasher, next to the soapstone sink.

 

Here is the counter next to the sink, my favorite part of the whole kitchen. It turns chopping vegetables into a whole new experience, sort of the zen of preparation, if you will.

Here is the cupboard above the cooktop, hiding the vent a hood. But look what is also hides.

 

Cy built a nice spice cabinet in the shallow space in front of the Faber vent. Handy to have spices right where you use them, by the stove. Yes I know I spent way too much when I treated myself to a shopping trip to Penzeys, www.penzeys.com but what a difference fresh high quality spices make. I think some of my spices were older than my kids! Yikes! Now I can't wait to go back and fill up the shelves.

It's nice to sit at the table and watch the bird feeders in the backyard. Look to the far left, at the tall doors with H hinges. Look at what they hide.

 

First item on the right is the hidden refrig with radio and speakers above. Gotta have good music when you're working.

Next to that is the cupboard with my Amana convection oven, my micro, and lots of room for small electics, baking pans, etc.

And here, hidden on the side of the refrig, is a space for our new flat screen TV. Who can cook without a glimpse at the TV now and then?

Here is the under counter "dock" to the right of the sink.

Here it is open, home to all sorts of electric gadgets that normally drape themselves all over the counter.

 

And here is my other favorite thing, the wide plank 18th C chestnut floorboards with original mustard paints. Can you see how they warm up the cool dark brown of the cupboards?

So, how did we do? It is so rewarding to sit in this warm environment where I can eat, cook, work on my computer, watch tv listen to music, do yoga and look out the back door and watch the colored leaves fall. What could be better? Please send me your comments.

Sutton Antique Show

Hi, I am sending you some pictures of the Sutton, MA antiques show we did last weekend. The show is a small one day show that benefits the historical society, and sets up on the picturesque town green.  At the left you can see a few members of the historical society that appeared in their Colonial uniforms, just a nice addition to the scenery!

To the right is my booth, nice huh?

Here is the booth of Sue and Gary Wirth, and their daughter Molly, talking to a customer.

Here is the booth shared by the Bowl Barn Antiques and Country Plus. Lots of nice dried things for the fall season.

Can you tell what a pretty fall day it was? We had a great time, thank you all the hardworking folks at Sutton, and all the friendly customers. Next week, check us out at the Lebanon, CT antiques show, Saturday, also on the town green.

Arranging your pewter cupboard

Welcome to my new blog. I want to write weekly about living with antiques, being an antiques dealer, and well, who knows? Any ideas out there?
Today I had a customer call wanting some ideas for her treen display in her open top cupboard. How to arrange? What to do?  I’ve included a pic of my pewter cupboard, where I just arranged some treen I own and some from the shop stock.  You can arrange cupboards many ways. One way is to look at it as an artist would look at a painting or sculpture, by putting your larger items here and there, and balancing with groups of smaller items. Don’t forget to balance your lights and darks,  and your colors. It would look really silly to put all the red items on one side, no? Also silly to put all the darker items on one shelf.
But the look I like the best is when you are trying to duplicate a harassed housewife putting away her things after a very long day. Who cares what it looks like, just put the darn stuff up so the dogs don’t step on it. My best inspiration are old, what are called genre prints. As an example, I have a small black and white print that shows a Rev War housewife defending her home with a rifle. On her mantle piece is a jug, a napkin or cloth and a stack of books. Nothing symmetrical about it. As far as I know, symmetrical mantle arrangements became popular in the early 19th C. when classical design was all the rage.
So have some fun with you cupboards. Take it all out and try throwing it in. You may just get a look you’ll love! And if you are in the mood for a little shopping, check out my website, www.bluedogantiques.com