Find a copy of Gustav Ecke, and see what it was supposed to look like.
Veneer _is_ plywood. Don't sweat it. 8-)
Using plywood is perfectly acceptable for a large flat surface, and it makes movement a lot easier to handle.
Now for $4,000, maybe there's a question about the fitnes of ply....
By studying traditional Chinese furniture design. They had a climate that gave a lot of trouble with this, and they did it in a way that's both entirely different and considerably more sophisticated than Western styles (and did it all several hundred years earlier). Chinese joinery is incredible stuff - absolutely no fear of complexity, and beautiful workmanship too. I don't even begin to understand it, but if you ever have the chance, take a look at a good antique collection _after_ you've read some cross-sectional drawings (because you'll never see the joint lines otherwise).
MoFA in Boston have had good exhibitions.
Some, but it really is small enough to ignore on a table top.