my dining room table and chairs

Mentioned yesterday (I think in a comment responding to ho2cultcha's brass coatrack about one of my chairs serving the same function around here -- so it's *your* fault ho2cultcha... <lol>) but here's my old table and chairs, or at least as much of 'em that I could kinda clean off/dust enough to make 'em look halfway presentable. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

These were "appropriated" from otherwise total dis-use in my former housemate's storage locker, where they'd languished for nearly 15yrs already, when I got my own little house here and decided I wanted 'em. I remembered that there was an old oak table and chairs in there, (because h*ll, I helped to put them there that 15+yrs ago??!!) but had *completely* forgotten about how fancy the table base (at least) really was -- absolutely delighted myself once I did go to dig it up/out again.

The table itself is just under 4' round, made for a leaf or two (which I think I have here too someplace?) to be added if necessary. Its 4 matching carved lion (? dog?? dragon???) headed feet are about 16" long out from the 8" pedestal, carved on their outer ends to resemble 'animal feet' of an again kinda unrecognized (by me) creature, each one with an iron caster.

The set of 4 chairs match each other and appear to be of very similar age, general "craftsman style" I believe in their design...if or not they actually came with this table I don't know. With no 'animal carvings' or such on them they don't "match" the table itself with any design details (other than also being made of similar quartersawn oak, with original finish exactly now 'worn' in the very same way as the table is) and they were indeed "recovered" with it...??

As to the "finish" now on all 5 pieces, near as I can tell it is all original (if also now somewhat bubbled/crinkled/whatever old antique varnish does to itself over 100 (?) yrs time...look close at the table feet and chair back pics and you can see it) *except for* the tabletop itself, which somebody apparently tried to refinish at some point long ago, with only an 'adequate' result...whatever methods/materials used indeed did a nice job of 'lightening' the overall color a little and an *outstanding* job of now displaying the *incredibly gorgeous* quartersawn oak woodgrain [pic#2 shows just a wee little bit of it I could handily de-clutter/clean off] which I assume the entire rest of the thing (and the chairs) is made of too (and could look like if somebody ever got brave enough to really try to 'refinish' the whole thing...that ain't gonna be *me*... <lol>) but unfortunately whatever they used didn't ever (now so many unknown number of decades later) seem to have actually "set up" properly...the end result of that is simply, now, whenever I put any object directly onto the tabletop, then should happen to leave the same thing there for more than a day or 3 (or 6months, or whatever) the thing tends to get ever so slightly "stuck" to the surface. Never enough to make a mark (or hurt the random object in any way) and even the little random water drop or drip of spaghetti sauce (whatever) always cleans up nicely...just, apparently, one of its current foibles. I'm good with that -- it IS a lovely old table after all, and I DO greatly enjoy now having it in my life/home anyway, even if I probably haven't actually seen its entire top at one single time since I brought it here...? ;-) :-) :-) :-) <giggle>

The table and chairs all have kinda randomish appearing 'chalk marks' and such on their undersides, but nothing in any of that I've really ever been able to see as anything beyond typical manufacturing/factory markings found on/under nearly any kind of old furniture. (maybe indeed even somebody's kids chalk marks from years ago when said kids were playing under Grannny's table after dinner...??) Nor are there any actual makers labels or anything to help shed a clue where they might have originated, though I do know that they came here to AR from the state of Michigan, so might have first been made somewhere closer to there than here.

Hope y'all like them too, and if anybody *can* actually tell me anything more specific about 'em, I'd absolutely LOVE to hear it?!!