The Story Behind This TV Unit
The doors on this console are the reason it takes as long as it does. Carving that spills past a door frame onto the surrounding stiles cannot be cut as a flat panel and dropped in - the composition has to be laid out across the closed door and its frame together, then carved so the foliage crosses the joint line convincingly and still allows the door to open. Set it out wrong and either the door binds or the pattern breaks at the gap.
The foliage is worked in tiers. The carver establishes the ground, lifts one layer of acanthus away from it, then another, undercutting each so light passes behind the leaves. The rose blooms are shaped individually on their own axes, some open with the outer petals turning back, some still in bud.
The serpentine top is a separate discipline: shaped in and out across its full length and then worked with scrapers, because a curved polished surface shows every ripple. The legs are turned and the collars carved. Then hand-sanding through progressive grits, the polish built up in coats, and the hardware fitted last.