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The Marland Mansion has been on a furniture restoration journey over the last few years. Locals know our beloved mansion as the former home of E.W. & Lydie Marland. We also know it as the venue for some of our favorite annual soirees, and we are passingly aware of the beauty and treasures contained therein that we’ve grown so accustomed to seeing. Typical of anything that was touched by the Marland wand of grandeur, there is almost always more to it than meets the eye—so it has been with the monumental furniture restoration project.
As fate would have it, a few years ago an incredibly talented furniture restoration expert was encouraged to visit the Marland Mansion. We will call this gentleman, “Tom.” Tom is a third-generation antique restorer, trained by his father and grandfather before him. Restoring priceless items is in his blood. He spouts off facts about pieces and projects in a way that lets you know this is a language he speaks. He and his team have restored over 300 pieces of furniture belonging to the Marland Mansion.
As we walk from room to room he points to pieces of furniture and shares the restoration challenges each presented. In reference to two panels on a cabinet, both no larger than a sheet of notebook paper, he says, “It took two weeks to restore those two panels. They were black—fish oil, that’s what they used back then. It was the best finish you could use 150 years ago. But over the years, it just gets darker and darker and darker. Pretty soon, it’s black and you can’t see anything. There’s a bunch of pieces in here that were like that.” The panels Tom and his team cleaned up have a beautiful floral design on them that couldn’t be seen prior to restoration.
Tom talks about his first visit to the mansion and the piece that initially caught his eye. “We started walking around and I started seeing the furniture. The further I went, I was just dumbfounded. There was this piece sitting in the hallway up there, a Louis XV breakfront. I had never seen one in person. I’d seen them in books. I was like, ‘I need to talk to somebody about this.’”
That was when Tom met David Keathly and began to learn the story of the Marlands. Despite his already demanding workload, Tom soon began restoring furniture for the mansion. Tom and his team worked 16 hours a day for an entire month restoring the breakfront before returning it home to the mansion. He expected oohs and aahs when he brought it back, but reports the staff met him with stunned silence. They were so shocked by the result they couldn’t believe it was the same piece of furniture!
Most recently Tom has been working on restoring a dining room furniture set in the English Empire style. The set contains a curio, breakfront, buffet, server and a 60-foot-long dining room table with 17 leaves and 18 chairs. Twelve of the leaves and the chairs are still in the process of being refinished. The story of how the table came back home is quite the tale.
Keathly got a call from a woman in Kansas who claimed to have the Marland’s dining room furniture. He consulted Tom after receiving the call. Tom was skeptical. He knew the claim would need to be authenticated, so he set about getting pictures and measurements of all the pieces. Based on that information, he knew the furniture was built in upstate New York. He then reached out to a contact in the antique world to determine who placed the original order. After some digging his contact came up with a name. She called Tom to share the news—the set is one-of-a-kind, but it wasn’t purchased by Marland. Tom called Keathly to relay the story. “I called David back. I was like, ‘Buddy, I’m sorry. It is a one-of-one set. But it wasn’t Marland’s. It’s a John Forsyth who ordered it.” Tom says Keathly nearly dropped the phone when he heard the name he knew so well. John Duncan Forsyth was the architect who designed the Marland Mansion. He ordered the table for the Marlands in 1927.
Upon recovering the pieces, Tom discovered they were stamped in the same manner as many of Marland’s other pieces. Of all the pieces Tom has restored, 99% of them are stamped with either “EW Marland,” “Marland Oil,” “Marland Estate” or “MV Marland” (Mary Virginia). The type of ink used at the time leaves a very specific tell, so these stamps cannot be fabricated.
Tom and his team have been working on the table for around two years. Each of the 17 leaves were warped from 40 years in storage, and the wood has had to be reshaped. Wood has a memory, so reshaping it takes time. The chairs have been quite an undertaking as well. The seats have seven layers of material, and each layer must be hand-stitched. Just one chair necessitates miles of hand-stitching to get them back in their original condition. Italian tapestry has been ordered that will match the original chair fabric.
Tom says he has a few more pieces left to restore before he is finished with his work at the Marland Mansion. The icing on the cake will be a virtual tour component he will help build once the restoration work is complete. Tom and a colleague will be cataloging all the furniture on the property. They will compile information like when and where each piece was made, types of wood and other materials it’s comprised of and information on unique carvings and other aspects. The tour will be a treasure trove of information for history buffs and furniture lovers to revel in.
For more information regarding any of the furniture that has been so beautifully restored, visit the Marland Mansion at 901 Monument Road in Ponca City for a tour. All the exquisite items finished to date can be seen in person. Additional items are being added as restoration work is complete. Contact the mansion for tour times and further information at (580) 767-0420 or visit their website at www.marlandmansion.com.
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