Antique Bench with Woven A Seat

 This great antique bench came to us not long ago with broken weaving on the seats.  No wonder since the cane was very small for the number of holes use on the bench.  That meant the weaving was very open, and with thin cane it was to weak to support a very heavy person.  Maybe it was meant for children?   So with pieces of cane snapping and breaking through out the weaving, they took it to us for help.

We re wove it by hand, with a wider cane so that the seats would have more strength.  After weaving, Tung Oil was applied to the top and bottom of the woven sections.  This will help increase the life of the cane by giving it flexibility, resiliency, and keep it from drying out.  The Tung Oil also gives the top surface of the cane a bit of an amber color instead of the bright whitish color that it naturally comes in.

This seat is such a cool piece, the age and use shows through in the wood in ways you don't often see.  Such as the beam that runs across the front, just above the ground has been worn unevenly by peoples feet!  The middle section is still pretty thick but the side two sections have valleys worn into them.


I so enjoy when unique pieces like this come to us,  it is such fun imagining the history and finding out how it was used.  What is the most unique piece of furniture you have stumbled across?  Do you have some treasure in your own home?