Doing a little more digging into this, I found these two Gallery V tear sheets c. 1964 on the Grand Rapids Public Museum website. As you can see, the sideboard shown looks very much like these cabinets, though with the chrome base a la the Rougier attributed models. The collection was produced by Johnson Furniture of Grand Rapids. Interesting bit of history of Johnson according to GRPM:
When Earl Johnson retired and the family sold the company in 1963, it was purchased by a group of investors led by James Van Oosten. Milo Baugham and Kipp Stewart designed lines of residential furniture, which Johnson produced for Directional Industries between 1963 and 1968. After being owned by Holiday Inns, Inc. between 1968 and 1975, the company returned to the ownership of Van Oosten and company.
Doing a little more digging into this, I found these two Gallery V tear sheets c. 1964 on the Grand Rapids Public Museum website. As you can see, the sideboard shown looks very much like these cabinets, though with the chrome base a la the Rougier attributed models. The collection was produced by Johnson Furniture of Grand Rapids. Interesting bit of history of Johnson according to GRPM:
When Earl Johnson retired and the family sold the company in 1963, it was purchased by a group of investors led by James Van Oosten. Milo Baugham and Kipp Stewart designed lines of residential furniture, which Johnson produced for Directional Industries between 1963 and 1968. After being owned by Holiday Inns, Inc. between 1968 and 1975, the company returned to the ownership of Van Oosten and company.
Wow Mark, you really outdid yourself! Incredible detective work thanks so much! That credenza in the background on that Gallery V cut sheet is the one I posted except mine has wooden base instead of chrome. Now do you still think mine is walnut and not rosewood?
I mean, it's almost a moot point given that I don't know what Venezualan rosewood is. Nothing about the OPs cabinets looks like any rosewood I know, and it actively looks like walnut.
But, it's not an up close photo, there's no end grain on solid wood to assess and ultimately an ID cannot ever be definitive based on a visual alone.
I mean, it's almost a moot point given that I don't know what Venezualan rosewood is. Nothing about the OPs cabinets looks like any rosewood I know, and it actively looks like walnut.
But, it's not an up close photo, there's no end grain on solid wood to assess and ultimately an ID cannot ever be definitive based on a visual alone.
Made these pix can help you pinpoint the wood Kyle. Thanks.
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@guyinsf, Face veneers on your credenza may indeed be of rosewood, though the base does appear to me more likely walnut which is why I questioned it at first. Still smiling at those drawer and door pulls here. They jumped out right away!
I know there's a tonal difference between the legs and the veneer but it's walnut as far as I am concerned, based on this series of photos. The pores of the wood are too frequent to be as a dense as the majority of rosewoods, also those pores are very fine. Whereas most rosewoods have fewer thick and occasionally quite black pores. I call them pores as the term 'grain' gets used interchangeably with the word 'figuring'. I am not really discussing the colouring or visual patterns.
Compounded by my gut feeling that the figuring on the side reminds me of all too many nicely figured bits of cabinetry I've glanced at thinking they're rosewood. Later to discover they're walnut upon closer inspection.
It doesn't look like any form of rosewood I have had the pleasure of owning, by species or by name. And it certainly doesn't look like Bocote.
I know there's a tonal difference between the legs and the veneer but it's walnut as far as I am concerned, based on this series of photos. The pores of the wood are too frequent to be as a dense as the majority of rosewoods, also those pores are very fine. Whereas most rosewoods have fewer thick and occasionally quite black pores. I call them pores as the term 'grain' gets used interchangeably with the word 'figuring'. I am not really discussing the colouring or visual patterns.
Compounded by my gut feeling that the figuring on the side reminds me of all too many nicely figured bits of cabinetry I've glanced at thinking they're rosewood. Later to discover they're walnut upon closer inspection.
It doesn't look like any form of rosewood I have had the pleasure of owning, by species or by name. And it certainly doesn't look like Bocote.
I also never doubted the legs have a different wood than the rest of the credenza or at least it looks that way to me but I also remember someone telling me that they always save the best looking wood for veneer but not for solid wood so whether this is rosewood or walnut the credenza might be of one kind from top to bottom and it might be just a difference of solid and veneer of the same wood looking a tad different. The pic of quartered section of the bocote that Mark uploaded does resemble the facade of my credenza in my opinion. Thanks so much for your input Kyle!
@guyinsf, Face veneers on your credenza may indeed be of rosewood, though the base does appear to me more likely walnut which is why I questioned it at first. Still smiling at those drawer and door pulls here. They jumped out right away!
I agree with you on those pulls, so unique! I'm also still leaning towards rosewood as well as I've been from the start. Thanks so much for chiming in!
FWIW, Canaletta is a trade name for Bocote , Cordia Gerascanthus, Family: Boraginaceae, the borage family. Origin: Florida, West Indies, Central America and southward to Brazil and Argentina.
Thanks for the pix Mark! I think the quartered section looks the most like the veneer of the drawer fronts on my credenza.
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