Customers Get Grades Too!
Did you know that back in the day Federal Period furniture builders had a grading system in place for customers who purchased their works?
I didn’t but it made since once it was explained to me. This is a brief explanation of how it works with card table legs.
The system was based on two things:
- The amount of stringing you wanted & where.
- The amount of coin you were willing to part with.
Using a 4 leg card table as an example, if the customer didn’t want to spend much money, they would get fronts of the front two legs of their table stringed and a simple oval inlayed.
This would be considered a “C” customer.
If the customer had few more dollars and wanted to fancy up their piece they would get fronts of all four legs stringed and have a fancier oval inlayed into the two front legs.
This would get you upgraded to a “B” customer.
Now, if you were just showing off how much cash you were tripping over you’d get the front and out sides of you back two legs stringed. In addition you’d also get the front and both sides of your front two legs strings as well as a fancier oven inlayed.
This would get you to the top of the class as being an “A” customer.
Now this was just an example of the legs. The same theory held true for the amount (and how fancy) of stringing you wanted on the aprons and tops.
In addition I found that the cabinet makers of old didn’t always make their inlays. Just like we mail order for them or buy them from Woodcraft/Rockler, they had craftsmen who did nothing but made inlays for them to buy and use in their furniture. (The main difference was they didn’t use CNC machines to make theirs.)
- Photo #2 given to me by Glen Huey
- Photo #3 from Maui Woodworker’s Guild from their workshop with Steve Latta
- Photo #1 was found many months ago on Google and I have yet to find it again so I can give proper credit
Popularity: 3% [?]
September 8th, 2009
