Antique Irish Bakery Counter Repurposed to Kitchen Island

Antique Bakery Island, soon to be a Kitchen Island imported from Ireland. This is the description from the gentleman whom we purchased the shop counter from in Ireland, who has been in the antique business for the last 40-years. “Rare 19th. C. Irish Scumbled Pine Baker's Island with four working drawers over eight panel doors with towel railing at the side raised on square legs”. What the description of the newly converted Kitchen Island was missing are the correct number of drawers, which now stand at eight large and very functional drawers. As beautiful as this potential Kitchen Island was, the height just did not work for our Modern American Kitchen Islands, which is roughly 36”. So, this Antique Irish Bakery Counter, or Bakery Island, has been sitting in our workshop for months, while we thought about all the possible options to raise this Antique Island up to 36” in height. Finally, it dawned on us to fabricate another set of (4) matching drawers, with 19th c matching style hardware that we could create and still maintain the beautiful original aesthetics of the Irish Bakery Island. The real obstacle was not casting the hardware (which we did inhouse), but blending the all-original 19th century scumbled finish, which can be difficult. The top of the Antique Island and 75% of the entire Kitchen Island’s body still maintains its original 130-year-old finish. I do have to confess, that the original towel bars on the end of the Antique Kitchen Island were steel and a bit pitted and scruffy, so we purchased new solid brass rods to replace the originals and then gave the brass towel holders a light patina to match the Island. In our over 250-antique buying trips to the UK, we have never seen anything quite like this Commercial Bakery Kitchen Island, especially that was finished on all four sides and just begging to become an incredible Antique Country Style Kitchen Island and certainly must be a one-of-a-kind. On a side note, the drawer handles have been cast in them; Davidson & Co. Belfast, Sirocco. Sir Samuel Davidson (1846-1921) was an inventor and a very successful businessman who invented the fan, hence the name of this company, Sirocco which is what they called the hot dry winds of North Africa. Unfortunately, although I understand that his factory was gigantic and had over a thousand employees, I can only assume that he probably made this Bakery Island and at a minimum cast the hardware, which appears to be original to the Island, or at least the top (8) handles are.

**Please note puncture in the top, image 8. It's about the size of a dime.