Features | Crafts
The Madison Table How a cedar slab from James Madison’s estate was artfully transformed into a celebration of the American Constitution WRITTEN BY
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ric Horton, manager of the Klingspor’s Woodworking Shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was in for a surprise the day his lumber buyer came across some original tree slabs from Founding Father James Madison’s estate. The slab that really piqued Horton’s interest was a cedar one allegedly gifted by the Marquis de Lafayette to James Madison when he visited America in 1824. Oral history suggests that Lafayette brought cedar seeds with him as a gift to Madison from the country of France. Cedar trees are not native to North America, which makes the slab that much more special. The slabs arrived rough sawn and completely unfinished. They estimated to be around three inches thick. By the time Horton was done, they were two inches, flattened, leveled, and completely finished. Horton explained that it took him six or seven months of contemplating to decide the best project for the wooden slab. However, he always knew that he wanted it to be Constitution-themed. “And so I knew that somewhere I wanted to inlay 22
Skylar Parker
We the People, I just wasn’t sure what I was going to inlay,” he said. He finally kick-started the project in early April 2021 and decided on a copper inlay, inspired by Paul Revere, a coppersmith and significant figure in the American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party. Horton explained he had never dabbled in metalwork but was determined to make his vision come true. “That’s where the idea of the copper ‘We the People’ came from on the top of the table,” he said. But that wasn’t all. Horton had to also learn acid etching in order to
ABOVE & BELOW
The tabletop is inlaid with words from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. RIGHT Illustrations of the Liberty Bell and the U.S. Supreme Court are etched into the copper panels of the table.
AMERI CAN ESSE NCE
