Category: Boards

Whole-wheat border

A deceptively simple harvest board with a continuous border of stylised wheat ears, the small dots being both decorative and functional as they provide essential reference points for the carver to maintain an even pattern and ensure a seamless join. The skill of carving in the round on a curved surface cannot be over-emphasised, and the collection contains several charming examples of more amateur attempts which have resulted in patterns toppling, bulging and bunching.

1900s

Tom Samuel gets creative

Taken from the collection of The Antique Breadboard Museum, Putney:

A breadboard dating from the 1990s especially designed and carved by master cabinet-maker Tom Samuel featuring a modern take on linen-fold, the deeply carved swathe of radiating fabric bunching in an off-centre whorl.

Sycamore, 1990s, 13″

http://www.tomsamuel.co.uk/

Latest must-have in 1848

TAKEN FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE ANTIQUE BREADBOARD MUSEUM, PUTNEY:
A unique family board commissioned by the Sophia Child-Villiers with two Earl’s coronets, top and bottom, distinguishable by the five lofty rays topped by balls, and complimented by four letter Js, one on either side, in mirror image, resembling vines. ‘Middleton’, carved twice in elegant Gothic lettering, refers to the Villiers family’s country seat of Middleton Park in Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire.
 
An article entitled ‘Potato Bowls’ on p.368 in the Art Union Journal of 1848 reads: “Among the bread-platters which Mr Rogers continues to carve in considerable quantities, we may mention a number which have been produced for special positions: such as one of exquisite finish for the Duke of Richmond, inscribed in ornamental letters with the word “Glenfiddich”; a second for the Countess of Jersey with the family name “Middleton”; and a third, more remarkable than the rest, for Sir Robert Menzies, having, in Saxon characters, the motto, “VIL GOD I ZAL”.”

There is considerable wear to the surface and rim, with worm damage, 13″,
limewood, 1848.

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