everything has a story: ivory escutcheons

When I showed the South guest bedroom I mentioned that there was a story having to do with the antique chest-of-drawers that would convince you (if you weren't already;) of Dan's talent as a craftsman!

When we found this antique English chest-of-drawers in Dallas many years ago it had a big "HOLD" tag on it.  It was also missing one knob, an ivory escutcheon and another knob was badly broken and not usable.  (For those not familiar with the term, an "escutcheon" is a protective or ornamental plate or flange- as around a keyhole.) 

I loved the chest, the price was right and I didn't concern myself at the time at how we (i.e. Dan ;) would remedy the missing knobs and escutcheon.  I was more concerned with the big, ole "HOLD" tag that meant I couldn't buy it!  It was on hold until the next day at 5 p.m.  So, the following day we arrived at the antique shop at 4:45 and waited!  5 o'clock came and went and we asked the staff to call the person to see if they were going to take it.  The person decided against it because the width didn't fit their space and we snapped it up!  

Replacing the missing knobs turned out to be fairly easy.  As is often the case on antique chests, the hardware has been replaced over the hundred plus years of its life to what was the latest "style"- yes, they even had trends back then!  For example, when this chest was initially made it was designed to have brass pulls.  It later became fashionable for chests to have "wooden" knobs, so the brass pulls were removed, the holes plugged/patched and new holes for the wooden knobs were drilled.  It is rather rare to find an antique chest that didn't go through this type of modification over the course of its lifetime.
When we bought the chest there was a wooden knob in the top center drawer.  In this photograph you can even see the indentation from the knob around the ivory escutcheon.  It took a while to figure out that the reason this knob wasn't in line with the other two top drawer knobs (which can also be seen in this photograph) was because originally this drawer didn't have a pull of any kind and was only opened using a key. When we removed the knob in the center top drawer we found the hole that outlined where the original ivory escutcheon had been, but the escutcheon was gone.  They had used that hole to place the wooden knob which is why it didn't line up with the other two drawers.   So, now we needed to replace not one, but two escutcheons.  We removed this knob with the intention of leaving the center drawer accessible only via a key as it had been originally designed, and used the knob as the replacement for the one that was broken.  We then went to our go-to place for miscellaneous antique parts in Dallas: Uncommon Market  and found a replacement for the missing knob.  

In this close-up photograph you can see where the holes for the original brass pulls were patched- probably 100 years ago!  The other telltale sign that the knobs weren't original is how they overlap the ivory escutcheon- it would never have been designed that way.

  Replacing the ivory escutcheons proved to be more difficult. For the next month, or so, we discussed all the possibilities of what we could use to replace the missing escutcheons.  We had several antique ivory billiard balls that we had found in France, but if you've ever priced them they can range, on average, from $95-$195 each, so no one was going to cut up an antique billiard ball!

About this time our next door neighbor who had just retired and was preparing his home to sell called and said he was cleaning out his garage and asked Dan if he would like some boxes of old tools that had belonged to his father.  Well, of course Dan would like some old tools! 

The boxes contained years of accumulated random odds and ends, some wonderful tools AND, 

(now, hold on to your hat ;) 

as luck would have it.....

half of an antique ivory billiard ball!   

I can hear you saying "Get out"!!  No, you get out!!!! :):)

 Our neighbor had no idea why his father would have had an antique billiard ball, but you can imagine our surprise and delight upon finding it!  Something like a needle in a haystack, only better!

Then began the process for Dan to try to figure out how in the world do you get a paper thin escutcheon out of a round ivory ball?!  

Since each escutcheon was initially hand cut, no two of the shield shapes were alike.  Dan started by tracing the shield outline from the holes in the drawers on paper (those are the two paper samples on the left) and then transferring the pattern onto a piece of cut ivory (the two cut ivory samples are on the right).  But, that all makes it sound too easy- this is  not an episode of "This Old House" where everything is perfect the very first time!!  First he had to figure out "how to cut" the ivory...

  Keeping in mind that he only had so much material to work with, (i.e. only a partial billiard ball) there was no room for error.  Dan quickly found out that because the ivory was so brittle the cut couldn't be too thin or it would break the second he started working on it.  Just when he thought he'd have a perfect piece a chip would break off and he would have to start over .  After several failed attempts he realized to prevent breakage he needed to cut the slices thicker than what would fit flush in their respective drawer holes.   He made the initial slices using a coping saw (that's for all you men out there reading;) and then used a Dremel drill with a sanding attachment and a utility knife to gingerly shape the shield design.  Next, he turned a belt sander upside down and held the escutcheon down with his finger to get the shield down to the proper thickness so it would fit flush on the drawer front.  The last step was cutting out the keyhole in the now paper-thin center of the ivory piece.  Using the Dremel drill and making many small drills he eventually made the opening into the shape of a keyhole.

The finished product, though this was one of the culls that didn't quite make the cut!

After gluing the new escutcheons in place they were just a little too white, so I lightly oiled them in Old English (Dark) to age them and they were perfect!  So much so, in fact, that to this day neither Dan, nor I, can tell you which one (other than the top drawer) is the one he made!

(To read other "everything has a story" posts click HERE)