At last - after a year and a half of work interrupted by some months of illness, I've finished the restoration of the Georgian bureau for my son's partner.
It dates from about 1755 (on stylistic grounds) and was in very poor condition when I bought it at the height of the 'brown furniture' prices in the 1990s. Then I went abroad for 7 years and had so much to do when I got back that I neglected it. Now of course, the fully refurbished price is less then the price I paid for the wreck, so I was despondent about it till my son's partner admired it and said she'd love to have it. So began what was a much longer process than I had anticipated! The base was missing apart from a small fragment of a foot, from which I reconstructed a plausible design, there was much woodworm damage, shrinkage damage and broken joints, the worktop had been covered with decayed and anachronistic red leather (it did not originally have a covering), all the drawer runners were very badly worn and needed replacing or resurfacing and there was very substantial shrinkage damage. I could hardly believe this but the front-to-back dimension (across the grain) had shrunk so much in relation to the drawer lengths (along the grain) that I had to remove the back and remount it 1 cm further back in order for the drawers to close! The gallery was a wreck and needed "forensic woodwork" to reconstruct. The matching ink blots on the desk and the underside of the gallery were a great help!
My aim was to use appropriate materials and methods where realistically possible, but I was not going to rebuild drawers at a shorter length to cope with the shrinkage, nor remove wrought iron nails, which would have caused more damage. So there are compromises:
- woodworm-ridden sections of the bottom plate and of the front trim were replaced
- drawers were mended and new banding spliced in to the many broken parts
- Miller dowels were used to strengthen partially broken dovetail joints, in both carcase and drawers (not authentic of course, but a reasonable alternative to replacing a lot of the body)
- the back was moved out 1 cm with oak spacer pieces
- all runners were resurfaced and remounted, and the top level runners were remade from new
- the gallery was rebuilt
- an entirely new base was built
- where wood was being replaced, modern adhesives were used, but for regluing joints, liquid hide glue was used
- old wood was used in the reconstruction; not 260 year old, but the pine (runners etc) came from church pews made in the 1850s, and the oak and an ash sub-frame for the base came from a 1930s dining table that was missing its top, at a local low-end antiques dealer. Mahogany floorboards which provided the banding were kindly donated by jammyhl of this forum (unknown but considerable age). At least it was all well seasoned!
- I didn't attempt to clean up the inkstains or scratches on the worktop, apart from a necessary cleanup where there had been leather. In my view, these show the history of a well-used piece of furniture.
- brasswork was completely replaced, mostly from Marshall Brass, whose catalogue is comprehensive but impenetrable, and whose service is glacial, but whose products are excellent. Forensic woodwork showed that the drawers had already had three different sets of handles!
- the whole was cleaned with 50/50 meths/turps mixture plus a dash of vinegar (a forum member's formula, sorry I forget who it was) to get the grime off. Colour was renewed where needed, mostly with Vandyke crystals in solution. I did not attempt to get an invisible join between old and new, as it's a principle of conservation (in which I have some museum training) that replacement pieces should be distinguishable from the original. Final finish was wax straight onto the (stained) wood (clear on the worktop, brown wax polish on the carcase).
I hate to add up the hours I spent on it and in no way was it economically justifiable, but it was great fun, a huge learning experience, and gives much satisfaction in bringing a crafted piece from 260 years ago back to life. And one advantage of doing restoration rather than making new furniture is that one needs only a very small supply of quality timber!
Keith
It dates from about 1755 (on stylistic grounds) and was in very poor condition when I bought it at the height of the 'brown furniture' prices in the 1990s. Then I went abroad for 7 years and had so much to do when I got back that I neglected it. Now of course, the fully refurbished price is less then the price I paid for the wreck, so I was despondent about it till my son's partner admired it and said she'd love to have it. So began what was a much longer process than I had anticipated! The base was missing apart from a small fragment of a foot, from which I reconstructed a plausible design, there was much woodworm damage, shrinkage damage and broken joints, the worktop had been covered with decayed and anachronistic red leather (it did not originally have a covering), all the drawer runners were very badly worn and needed replacing or resurfacing and there was very substantial shrinkage damage. I could hardly believe this but the front-to-back dimension (across the grain) had shrunk so much in relation to the drawer lengths (along the grain) that I had to remove the back and remount it 1 cm further back in order for the drawers to close! The gallery was a wreck and needed "forensic woodwork" to reconstruct. The matching ink blots on the desk and the underside of the gallery were a great help!
My aim was to use appropriate materials and methods where realistically possible, but I was not going to rebuild drawers at a shorter length to cope with the shrinkage, nor remove wrought iron nails, which would have caused more damage. So there are compromises:
- woodworm-ridden sections of the bottom plate and of the front trim were replaced
- drawers were mended and new banding spliced in to the many broken parts
- Miller dowels were used to strengthen partially broken dovetail joints, in both carcase and drawers (not authentic of course, but a reasonable alternative to replacing a lot of the body)
- the back was moved out 1 cm with oak spacer pieces
- all runners were resurfaced and remounted, and the top level runners were remade from new
- the gallery was rebuilt
- an entirely new base was built
- where wood was being replaced, modern adhesives were used, but for regluing joints, liquid hide glue was used
- old wood was used in the reconstruction; not 260 year old, but the pine (runners etc) came from church pews made in the 1850s, and the oak and an ash sub-frame for the base came from a 1930s dining table that was missing its top, at a local low-end antiques dealer. Mahogany floorboards which provided the banding were kindly donated by jammyhl of this forum (unknown but considerable age). At least it was all well seasoned!
- I didn't attempt to clean up the inkstains or scratches on the worktop, apart from a necessary cleanup where there had been leather. In my view, these show the history of a well-used piece of furniture.
- brasswork was completely replaced, mostly from Marshall Brass, whose catalogue is comprehensive but impenetrable, and whose service is glacial, but whose products are excellent. Forensic woodwork showed that the drawers had already had three different sets of handles!
- the whole was cleaned with 50/50 meths/turps mixture plus a dash of vinegar (a forum member's formula, sorry I forget who it was) to get the grime off. Colour was renewed where needed, mostly with Vandyke crystals in solution. I did not attempt to get an invisible join between old and new, as it's a principle of conservation (in which I have some museum training) that replacement pieces should be distinguishable from the original. Final finish was wax straight onto the (stained) wood (clear on the worktop, brown wax polish on the carcase).
I hate to add up the hours I spent on it and in no way was it economically justifiable, but it was great fun, a huge learning experience, and gives much satisfaction in bringing a crafted piece from 260 years ago back to life. And one advantage of doing restoration rather than making new furniture is that one needs only a very small supply of quality timber!
Keith
.
