Here we have a Victorian (1837-1901) Pollard Oak Bedroom Suite by Maple & Co, consisting of a gentlemen’s 3 door wardrobe, a dressing table with mirror and bedside cabinet. The wardrobe has 2 mirrored doors, carved details to the top and 3 drawers, with wooden handles, to the bottom of the middle section. The centre of the wardrobe showcases a diamond and symmetrical pattern of pollard oak panels, inside it opens to reveal hanging space in each section and shelves to the top of each side. The pollard oak dressing table has a large central mirror, 12 drawers with wooden handles (8 to the bottom and 4 on the top) and a central cupboard above the knee space. The pollard oak bedside cabinet has 1 single door which opens to reveal 1 interior shelf.
Pollard Oak
Pollard Oak is the wood derived from oak trees that have been ‘pollarded’. Pollarding is a system of pruning the top branches of a tree which then promotes a dense head of branches and foliage.
It’s a technique that has been used in Europe since medieval times and is used today to keep trees in urban areas at a set height. When pruned in this way, the tree forms a lump or ‘burr’ which when cut for veneer has a lovely swirling figure in the grain.
New machines were developed in the 19th century which enabled veneers to be thinly and evenly cut for the first time, and enabled Victorian cabinet makers to use ‘burr’ woods as veneers. Before these machines were invented this had been a problem since the wild grains that make the wood so attractive also make it very brittle and difficult to work with.