This custom yellow birch table crafted by Louis Charlett is showing at The Stable Gallery. (Photo courtesy Priscilla McCandless)
It is a rare treat when fine craftsmanship, artistic sensibility, and history join together in a piece of functional furniture. Currently showing at The Stable Gallery in Damariscotta is a custom table with these features by Louis Charlett, of New Gloucester.
Charlett has traced the history of the table’s wood, originally a submerged yellow birch log once sunk in Moosehead Lake. By counting the tree’s rings and knowing the history of tree-felling equipment, he can date its sprouting to somewhere in the years from 1674-1679, when colonists were fighting Native Americans and the British in King Philip’s War.
Charlett found both saw marks and ax marks on the butt end of the original wood. These marks placed the tree cutting in the years 1865-1870, after the two-man crosscut saw was invented and before the ax was totally phased out. The combination of rings and cutting tools make the wood approximately 340 years old.
With his humanly significant 36 years of woodworking experience, Charlett crafted this wood into a table on display at the gallery through Wednesday, Sept. 6. Also on display are one-of-a-kind wooden trays, Lazy Susans, and lamps also made by Charlett.
The Stable Gallery honors each of its 37 Maine-based artists with inclusion in at least one of its monthly shows from May through mid-October. While all artists’ work are always available at the gallery, the feature month allows for more of the honored artists’ work to be on display in the gallery’s main room.
The gallery’s next show, titled “Art Harvest,” will open with a public reception on Friday, Sept. 8 from 5-7 p.m. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours for the public reception with the artists on the second Friday of each month. The Stable Gallery also participates in the Damariscotta-Newcastle ArtWalk from 4-7 p.m. on the third Friday of each month in June-September.
The Stable Gallery is located at 26 Water St., Damariscotta. For more information, call 563-1991 or go to stablegallerymaine.com.
