Watertown Slide Table Era 1889-1910

Cherry Table Before

Cherry Table After

In this business you never quite know what type of project you will recieve. This was one of those projects which came with a few surprises. What you see in the left photo is a table with a hidden agenda, it extends to about ten feet and can accommodate between 3-4 leaves which makes it a huge table! Unfortunately, my customers had purchased this table without any leaves and decided to use it as is. The slide mechanism was made by the Watertown Slide Company located in Watertown, Wisconsin. Judging by the style and materials used in the table, I estimate it to be made between 1889-1910, but likely is was made in the early 1900's. (This company only made the slide mechanism for the leaves of the table, not the table itself.)


This particular table also came with an additional center leg, which was attached to the underside of the table and could be brought down by pulling out a wooden peg, then moving a hinge to the center and dropping the leg, replacing the peg in a new spot for structural support. This was likely used when all leaves were installed to support the center of the table for that large turkey dinner!

Another interesting feature about this table is that the overhang section actually folds back over the other side to make the table much smaller. The sides then push in, so the table can function as an accessory or sofa table, on which you can place a reading lamp. When fully opened, it makes a perfect dinner table or a table on which to assemble a puzzle for those puzzle enthusiasts.

The table was made of solid cherry, a gorgeous wood for the age of this fine antique. It had two chewed up corners which needed some attention as well as a scratched surface. The underside had at one time been used as a cuting surface (cringing) so there were a few fairly deep gouges which had to be filled in.

The entire table required a complete strip, which is extremely labor intensive given the detail on the front panel, below the top which had a unique curved feature and curved convex vertical sections of wood which became narrow as it curved upward in an arc, showing a large section of cherry before it resumed it's mirror image design on the opposite side. This part of the stripping process was the most time consuming because I ended up using wood carving tools to remove the stain which was imbedded in between all those tiny groves. That process alone took two days.

Curved Fluted Detail Before

Curved Fluted Detail After

The legs were straight, but two sides of the front had fluted detail, which also required the same wood carving tool (a life saver) to get between the narrow sections and scrape out all that old stain and finishing.

This took a while but it was worth it since by removing the old finish, it allowed the new stain and polyurethane to penetrate and protect the wood for another 100 years. Once I was satisfied with all the stain removal with stripping and detailed sanding, I chose a golden pecal stain, which brought out the natural tones of the wood. Normally I would have chosen cherry, but I wasn't happy with the way the cherry looked on this piece, so I chose the golden pecan, which is a gorgeous color for any type of wood. That's the great thing about genuine antiques. The wood is always perfect, once you painstakingly remove the old finish and reveal the beautiful wood beneath. I'm never disappointed with the end results of refinishing real antiques!