One nice feature of the pursuit of bonsai is it entails many different fields of study. Beyond the design of bonsai, one needs to know about horticulture to keep the trees alive, botany to understand how trees respond to trimming, taxonomy to classify your specimens, chemistry to properly fertilize and water, metallurgy for tool care and sharpening, ceramics for pottery and pots, and even wood working for stands and displays. This month’s article we are going to look at a specialized form of wood working – that is repairing an old bonsai stand.
In 2004 I took a photo of Mary Madison’s Saltwood, Nea buxifolia, at the BCI Convention in St Louis. I still have the photo but it was not in focus and the color balance was off – darn analog cameras. Luckily Joe Noga photographed the same tree and stand combination at the US Nationals in 2008. I actually delivered the tree and stand for Mary that year to the show. While the Saltwood was an outstanding tree, this month we want to focus on the stand.
The stand is a beautifully carved hardwood (probably mahogany) piece from Asia. It has dragon motifs around perhaps a flower. I can’t recall where Mary said she obtained the stand. If the flower in the middle is a chrysanthemum then likely it’s Japanese. I can tell you though the joinery is Asian style as it has through tenons and was glued with hide glue. This means it has many years – maybe even antique status.
Let’s fast forward to the 2024 Bonsai Society of Florida convention. Mary’s daughter, Terry, was selling portions of Mary’s estate. This same stand was for sale and I recognized it (I have a memory for stuff like this). Alas it appeared to have taken a major hit. One side of the stand was broken in pieces. The price was reasonable and a fellow member of BSOB asked me what I thought about it. I said go for it – the price was right and even with the broken side, it could still be used. Carol purchased the stand. Later while we were on raffle duty, she showed me the piece. As I studied the fine carving I felt bad the stand had such damage. I gave the damage a closer look and thought, ‘I might be able to fix this.’ I asked Carol if she wanted me to try to repair it and she agreed. Here is what I did.
As you can see the stand was in several pieces. One of the long sides had broken. The carving was broken and pieces missing. The tenon on the end had broken off in the mortise. One of the legs had some damage where a piece chipped off – Lots of wear and tear on a well traveled piece.
