MARY HOYT WEDDING CHEST
Wedding gifts don't get any better than this.

SHOP OWNER: Greg Brunk
LOCATION: Cuyahoga Falls, OH

     Here are some photos of my latest project, a wedding gift for my son and new daughter-in-law that I built starting in October and just now finished. It only seemed fitting to make this reproduction of an original given to Mary Hoyt Williams on her wedding by her father David Hoyt which was commissioned by him to a Benjamin Munn III in 1786. The original can be seen at the William Stoddard Williams house in historic Deerfield. The plans for the chest appear in Norman Vandal's book, Queen Anne Furniture (Taunton Press, 1990).

 
     I made the chest from cherry with poplar as the secondary wood. The joinery is all hand-cut dovetails and mortise-and-tenon joints. The back panels are 1/2" thick, tongue-and-grooved poplar.
    The finish is light red maghogany water-soluble aniline dye followed by one coat of linseed oil and 15 coats of Minwax Antique Oil rubbed on. I rubbed out the finish with 0000 steel wool and linseed oil as a lubricant.

     It is way too early in the winter season to not have another project to work on but I believe my new daughter-in-law might have a few ideas for me. I hoped to have the chest ready to give them on their wedding day but I just got started too late. I'm glad they will be able to enjoy it over the Christmas holiday season.

. . . Greg Brunk

 

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