Reproducing Originals
Antique Furniture Serves As
Template For New Pieces
MICHELLE KUNJAPPU
Lancaster Farming Staff
STRASBURG (Lancaster Co.)
You might say it was a dovetail
fit.
From a beginning of experi
menting at his father’s work
bench in the basement to a full
time cabinet maker today, wood
working has offered Stephen
VanOrmer not only a favorite
hobby but also a career.
Owner of a cabinet shop in
Strasburg, VanOrmer creates re
productions of 17th and 18th
century antique furniture. In ad
dition he offers woodcarving and
restoration services.
In 1976 VanOrmer began his
own business in Strasburg, and
has been busy ever since. Early
jobs included making furniture
reproductions for local establish
ments such as the Hans Herr
VanOrmer emphasizes a purist design that includes
dove-taiiing the drawers by hand and applying traditional
shellac finishes.
House, Strasburg Heritage Socie
ty, and other museums. Since
then he has also done an assort
ment of jobs for museums which
include die Chester County His
torical Society and the Strasburg
Museum.
, VanOrmer was also commis
sioned to copy the five-foot “Ris
ing Sun” chair, for speaker of the
house, that was displayed in
Pennsylvania’s capitol building.
During die civil war the conti
A tilt top table.
Lancaster
nental congress, which normally
convened in Philadelphia the
acting capitol of the colonies at
the time moved to protect the
government. For a short time the
legislators met in Harrisburg,
where the Rising Sun chaur
stayed.
“The speaker’s chair was in
Harrisburg for quite a while until
they restored Independence Hall
during the centennial cele
bration,” said VanOrmer. The
original chair went back to Phila
delphia, and is now back in Inde
pendence Hall.
During the bicentennial cele
bration, when Harrisburg was
completing its own restoration,
authorites decided to commission
a copy of the chair for Harris
burg. Consequently VanOrmer
went to Philadelphia to make
plans for duplicating the original
chair. The chair, finished in 1968,
is on permanent display in
Harrisburg.
In addition he has created a
piece for the Smithsonian. A min
iature copy sits in his home.
Curators at the Smithsonian
decided to create a hands-on
room where visitors could handle
and see different artifacts.
“They wanted me to create a
chair that could be disassembled
to show the integral parts of the
chair,” he said. “What I ended
up doing was making a copy of a
Philadelphia Chippendale chair.”
VanOimer made a display
piece, which sets beside the parts
and pieces, which he also made,
of the “hands-on” chair. On the
wall are directions on how to put
the chair together.
Variety Important
The job, according to VanOrm
er, allows him flexibility and vari
ety that keeps him enthusiastic
about his work. Dutch cup
boards, dining room tables and
chairs, corner cupboards, tall
case (grandfather) clocks, flip top
tables, and even communion ta
bles for churches are part of the
variety of his work.
“What I like the most is the
variety,” he said. “I do every
thing from very formal Queen
Ann or Chippendale furniture to
country distressed furniture.”
For distressed furniture, he
uses silverware, tools, a rock, or
“anything that might simulate
Steve is Joined by his wife Darlene and daughter Laurie
the furniture of the VanOrmer home.
the wear marks that might be re
alistic,” to distress the furniture.
“I distress it in ways they
would have originally gotten beat
up,” he said.
Another aspect of the job that
he enjoys is the investigation he
can conduct in reproducing a
pieqe. To make the Rising Sun
chair, for instance, he traveled to
Harrisburg to take pictures, mea
surements, tracings, and draw
ings to most accurately re-create
the piece.
“If I have access to the antique
I can take all the details,” he
said. However “the average cus
tomer doesn’t have access” to the
original, he said, so antique peri
odicals and books from VanOrm
er’s own library prove useful. In
addition antique reference mater
ials help VanOrmer establish
proper measurements for the
piece.
According to VanOrmer, “nor
mal styles are typically standard
heights,” so he can make an edu
cated guess when he designs a
chair. Also local museums may
serve as a reference source be
cause they allow VanOrmer to
take sketches and make mental
notes.
“The best education is just
being exposed to the originals,”
he said.
His first job included stripping
and repairing original furniture.
“I was able to
take a part a lot
of original an
tiques and see
them from the
inside out.
“Even
though that
was the bottom
rung of the lad
der, it gave me
the opportunity
to handle the
pieces and
learn firsthand
how they were
Cut together,”
esaid.
Designing A >
Good Fit
Building a
piece of furni
ture that fits
comfortably
into a custom
er’s home is VanOrmer crafted, carved, and painted
not all shop th j s c hest. The piece decorates his home
""a 10. of Strasburg.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 13,2002-B2
are not exactly sure what they
want, so I sit down and help
them design it and come up with
something they like.
“If I know where it’s going, I
can more accurately come up
with something that will fit in
their house,” VanOrmer said. He
quizzes customers about their
home and decorating motif to
“get a feel for the place the piece
is going into.”
This consultation, combined
with pictures and samples of his
own work, helps customers create
what they are looking for.
VanOrmer also suggests that
customers research room settings
in colonial museums to “see what
furniture was used in certain set
tings.”
He enjoys the entire process,
from the initial consultation to
the rough cut of the work to fin
ishing touches of creating a piece.
Learning The Art
Watching ms father work
around the house and making his
own creations from scrap wood
from a local boat factory helped
to mold his talent and put him on
his woodworking career path.
In junior high, his first project
consisted of making a lamp out
of a log. Later, in high school,
shop class quickly became a pri
ority. “I ended up going to the
shop for study halls and lunch
period I was there probably
in the kitchen. He has made
four periods a day,” he said.
In his senior year, the shop
teacher allowed the students to
pick their own projects. VanOrm
er consulted with his mother,
who had in her files plans for a
grandfather clock.
His parents agreed to pay for
the materials for the project, so
he took on the challenge. “It took
my whole senior year to do it,” he
said. The clock still stands in his
parent’s living room.
His talent and interests di-
(Turn to Page B 30)
Grandfather clocks pro
vide an opportunity to
carve ornate designs.
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