The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

SIDEBOARDS

436 Cocktail cabinet in English walnut with fluted drawer front. Designed by Ernest Joyce MSIA. Author's workshops

matching veneers. Figure 437:6 is the detail of the taper legs with curve formed in the leg and not out of the rail which would result in a feather edge at the junction, while 437:7 shows the handworked fluting to the drawer front, and the turned knob handles which were also used for the doors. Figure 438 shows a similar fluted front being worked with round moulding-plane, guided only by carefully marked-out pencil - lines. This measure of accuracy is only possible with a plane-iron whose profile has not been distorted by careless sharpening.

Sideboards can be tall and fairly narrow or long and low, dependent on the size of the room. Most types provide storage space for bottles, glasses, china and table linen, etc., with orthodox drawers or interior trays, adjustable shelves, fall flaps or tambours or side-hung doors. Attached legs or independent stools or stands are favoured, as there are obvious disadvantages in taking cupboards down to or a little above floor level on a shallow plinth. Reference should be made to Part IV which details stands and stools, carcass constructions, tambours, fall flaps, etc.

A sideboard in Rio rosewood is illustrated in 439 and 440. Dimensions are 5 ft 61/2 in (169 cm) long overall, with separate carcass unit 2 ft 1 in (63.5 cm) in height and 18 in (46 cm) deep, and stool 111/4 in (28.5 cm) high. The sideboard is divided into three compartments, with double tambours to the middle section, and inset doors on butt hinges to the outer sections. Figure 439:1 shows the elevation, 439:2 the sectional side elevation through the tambour section, and 439:3 a plan section of the tambour and shutting edge of the right-hand door with shaped handle grip. Carcass construction is in 3/4 in (19 mm) veneered laminboard, doors 1 in (25 mm) laminboard edged all round, tambours, show rails, edgings and stool assembly, etc. in solid rosewood. The top is secret mitre dovetailed, and the long rails which take the tambour grooves top and bottom are inset 3/1 6 in (5 mm), with the doors rebated/rabbeted over 439:4 and the door corners slightly rounded. Figure 439:5 shows the leg assembly, 439:6 sections through the handle grips shaped in a continuous length, and 439:7 the moulding to the carcass edges. The interior is fitted with trays in the right-hand division and adjustable shelves to the remainder, while the tambour division has false sides and back to hide and protect the travel. As the rosewood was exceptionally richly marked, varying from purple-black to light tan, and as the photograph had to be taken with only normal workshop lighting, much of the detailing has been lost and the handle grips are barely discernible, but both tambours and both doors have grips running the full height of each.

443 Desmond Conlan: woodturning plays a large part in this simple cottage piece in solid Irish chestnut

444 Lucinda Leech: designed as part of a special touch catches to the doors and the cabinets are

dining room commission, this piece in solid ash has screwed to the wall