Help with a Pembroke Table

[Oceans64]

Hello...  I have a table that was given to me years ago.  After spending the last few nights researching, I believe it is a Pembroke table and (to my untrained eye) maybe in the Sheraton style.  The wood appears to be Tiger Maple (again a guess). The drawers are dovetailed and appear to be hand cut.  (Hopefully my pics will post).

One detail that I can't seem to find info on is on the top of the table, in all four corners, you can see the dowels which I assume join the top to the legs.  I thought I read somewhere (while researching a chair) that that was typical of Pennsylvania furniture but I can't find where I read that or anything else about it on the net.  Is this true or just my imagination 

There is a mark on the bottom of one drawer.  It reads 4-30-101   The last "1" of the 101 is about half the size of the other numbers.  There are some initials but they are very hard to read.  Maybe a cursive "L" and either a G, S, or F.  I'll post a pic but probably won’t come out well.

Any help in identifying the history would be appreciated. 

Thank you in advance...Also thank you for providing the forum! I am starting to obsess about this!!!

[waywardangler]

What beautiful figured wood!  It appears to be refinished with a sloppy reglue to the drawer dovetails and also replaced drawer knobs.  I would try and find out what the original knobs looked like and match them as close as possible.  I am not sure about the through dowels, what they are indicative of.  It would be a nice piece of furniture to show off that wood.

[Oceans64]

Thank you.  The wood is very nice.  There have been several repairs internally using a mix of screws and nails. Nothing is visible from the outside.  IF this piece is older, the wood may have shrunk some loosening up joints as I suspect it was stored in a garage in Palm Desert CA for several years.  A couple of the Dovetails have small nails and the remainder are sloppy with the glue

A part of me thinks this may have been someone's woodshop project in this century.  The pulls are plastic like (but older) but I cant see where there was any other type of pull on the drawer.  There are a few coroded nails inside. I suppose I could try to pull one and see what it looks like. There are elements that make me think it was handmade...  I'm just unsure about the quality.

Is your opinion that it is in a Sheradon style?  Here are some more pics.

Again - Thank you for your help.

Close up of the leg.



This is one of the braces that holds up the sides.  You pull it out to open the table.  It recesses back in to fold it down.  Definately looks hand carved.



Side of one of the drawers showing saw marks.



Inside of the table with a few nails showing corrosion.  Other nails look new.  There are a few newer screws as well altho I need to pull one to be sure.

[KC]

The thing that is nagging at me is the two hinged leaves.  First pic.

The grooved wood should open up and on top of the edge of the main cabinet top to make a smooth, even top.  AND if I am seeing rightly.....the groove on the right side and left are opposite?

[Oceans64]

KC - Here are some more pics - Hopefully they will answer your question but yes the table opens to a smoth solid surface (altho the sides have warped a bit).  There are a few screws are loose on the left but I don't want to retighten yet as they may have gone thru the surface at one point and filled (a long time ago).

I pulled the drawers and flipped the table over and found some marks!!!!  Amazing what good light reveals.... I haven't researched those yet.  They say SML CO and it is stamped in 2 places. So much for my homemade theory.

Table Open



Left Side Joint detail



Right side Joint detail



Pics of Hinges





SML CO Marks

[Oceans64]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to research the maker of this table? (See marks above)

I have spent 2 days at 2 diff antiques malls crawling under similar furniture looking for marks on similar pieces...
Never found any pieces with the through dowels - only pegged...
Searched the internet for hours....

Is there a specific book that would help me?  I'm at a loss...

[waywardangler]

I am thinking the through dowels are a later repair done by the person that reglued the drawers.  The wear showing on the pic of the one dowel you show is not consistent around the edges of the dowel vs. the bored hole in the top.  I think you are chasing a detail that does not exist from the original maker.  JMO.

[Oceans64]

What I am really interested in this the "SML C O" mark that was pressed underneath the table.  Is there a book out there that is all about furniture makers? or any suggestions on where to start researching such a thing?

[waywardangler]

I just searched Maine Antique Digest American Cabinetmakers Database that contains 36,000 entries and SML Co (or any form of it) was not listed.  Since this was in California, is there any chance this is a piece of Canadian furniture or from some country other than the U.S.?

[Oceans64]

I'll ask my parents...  They bought the house that I suspect this came out of.  They bought it "turn-key" so it was furnished.  I'll bet Dad still has the paperwork from 20+ years ago.  He's crazy like that!

[Oceans64]

Also... Thanks Wayward!  I really appreciate the search. 

[waywardangler]

Your "furniture company" markings may be a lumber company brand that was never sanded off the lumber used to make the table.  The markings do look more like a brand than a furniture company stamp.

Incorporated in Arizona on August 7, 1916, the Sacramento Mountain Lumber Company (SMLCo) took over the half-dismantled mill and part of the timber holdings of the Alamogordo Lumber Company.  From http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/region/3/lincoln/cultres4/sec2.htm

After a fire, company operations under the SMLCo name ceased in July 1920.

Further research on the lumber company may yield a lumber stamp that looks like the one on your table.

[Oceans64]

AH HA!!!!!! 

Wayward... you may be on to something here... 

The markings are on 2 different spots (which I thought unusual but what do I know) AND one of them is in a most inconvenient place!!

[Oceans64]

Well after researching Sacramento Mountain Lumbar Company - I've all but eliminated them as a possibility.  Curly Maple is formed from the soft Red Maple and is native to the NE US and Canada.  SMLCo operated in New Mexico.  The only native Maple there (where the logged) is the Canyon Maple (has several names).  It is a hard maple and not the species that becomes  curly.
 
The dates the company was in business don’t fit either but I could have a reproduction.

Thanks for the tip tho…  Can’t believe I missed that on the net.

[waywardangler]

Southern Maine Lumber Company?  

I guess I am going to disagree with your definition of "curly maple".  "Curly" refers to the figure in the wood.  Any species of maple (and some other species such as cherry) can be called curly including hard maple species... "Some of the figured Hard Maple is available (Curly, Birdseye, and Quilted)" from   http://www.lewislp.com/woodchar.asp

While SMLCo may not be the right company, I would check to see if maple in that region was historically used in furniture.  Figured wood would have been saved for gunstocks and furniture rather than being used in board lumber.  If they were cutting "canyon" maple and it had figure, you can bet they sold to someone making furniture for more $ than unfigured maple.

I guess to rule it out, I would have some expert determine what type of wood was used in your table.