Purchased the table for $13 at The Salvation Army. I thought it was a cheap laminate over pressboard Ashley and/or Seaman’s piece that I was going to paint and make a coffee station out of. When I flipped it over to clean, I found a stamp and serial number and, after a bit of internetting, found out that it is a Lane Thunderbird Lamp Table made on 10/27/56. I’ve got the pics to prove it, if you all would like to see.
Anyone know about old furniture? I don’t see this table anywhere else except on a copied page of Lane’s 1956 catalog. P.S., I’ve named him Atomic Boy.
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I can’t make out what kind of wood it is. It’s really cool and though I wouldn’t venture to guess a value, from watching Antique Roadshow I gather that any painting is a big no-no.
I was gonna strip the tops, paint the legs and side edges black, the sides with the racing stripes and. . . uh. . chevrons? cherry red and hope the veneer on the top and shelf was not terrible looking to leave raw or stain because-- he’s an Atomic Boy and needs his sleek looks!
My preference would be to clean off the old finish and simply oil the wood, assuming the wood is good enough quality. It probably is although much of what is visible on the tops could be veneer as already mentioned.
There’s no harm in painting it, paint is an excellent preservative. If you want to refinish it it will easier to use a paint stripper than sanding the complex shapes unless you love hand sanding for some reason. An orbital sander with a soft pad will help a lot also. You don’t have to remove all the old finish to paint it, but you should use a primer that is suited for what is probably an oil based finish.
I’ve seen quite a few Lane stuff and some can be pretty pricey. Acclaim, I think, is the most sought after and, therefore, quite expensive. But I’ve never, ever seen this product line. Even Lane stuff isn’t worth shit if nobody wants to buy it.
I’m highly doubtful a Lane is veneer. My family had some Lane end tables from around that time that had really bad finishes, but they were solid wood. Please don’t paint this, at least not before you have someone look at it.
This is what I did with the other piece of furniture I was going to turn into a coffee station and ended up being over 100 years old. Apparently I have an eye for good, old furniture without even knowing it. I posted pics in the DIY thread. I’ll do it here.
Even if I decide to paint, he’s still not gonna be a coffee/SodaStream station. Me and my inadvertent good taste!
DO NOT paint it. Don’t do ANYTHING to it without talking to a professional furniture restorer first.
Here’s a video from a family who bought some rural land and found a cabin on it that had good bones, AND a Lane boomerang table that is probably worth more than the building itself! Scroll over to the 5-minute mark to see it.
ETA: I tried to post a link, but it wouldn’t let me. Check out the “Bushradical” channel, and the video “Cleaning out an abandoned cabin in the woods.”
Yeah. Lane Boomerangs also very much sought after. But Lane made a whole bunch of furniture over its over 100 years of making stuff but it also made a lot of furniture nobody has ever heard of and no one wants. That is also something you learn watching Antiques Roadshow.
Yes, but I also learned from watching Pawn Stars that just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s valuable. (But maybe it is, if it’s sought after. I really have no idea.)
OK, a Mid-Century furniture collector and amateur expert tells me:
Lane is and was mid end furniture, not high end and most of Lane is not collectable. Also, Mid-Century furniture should be refinished if the finish is bad. It’s not an antique where ‘patina’ is where the money is at.
There are a few Lane product lines that are highly collectable (as have been mentioned here) but most lines are not. This particular line, while technically Mid-Cen Mod, is really transitional. AND this particular Lane design line is a knock-off of a more expensive Drexel line designed by John Van Koert.
So-- it’s a cheaper version of designer furniture. But it was a bargain at thirteen bucks.
I didn’t think a piece of furniture built in 1956 and obviously not a unique piece would have much value as an antique but it’s good you were able to check on that.
Long ago I met a couple of guys who made antiques. They bought used furniture and then antiqued it using nails to make fake worm holes, torches to age the finish and sometimes scorch the wood because the piece might have been recovered from a famous house fire, One of the guys was quite adept at creating cracks in the table tops. I think antique collectors are pretty knowledgeable now but they didn’t seem to be back in the '70s and not as many people want vintage/antique furniture anymore except for the high end high value stuff that they wouldn’t buy from two guys in a van on the side of the road. However they were working in the Lancaster PA area which may still attract people looking for discounts on old-timey looking stuff so maybe somebody is still doing that.
Never thought it was an antique-- unlike the Little Lady who is over 100 years old. Atomic Boy is vintage Mid-Century Mod. BTW, I didn’t give the Little Lady an oil finish but a wax one. And I did remove her ‘patina’ on her top and sides. She had water rings all over her. Luckily it was just the finish and not the wood. I think if I were to sell her, she’d fetch more than the $10 I paid for her, ‘ruined’ patina and all.
