repairs and restoration

 i had a chat with a friend about 'repairing things' recently ... 

we have done several repair projects, for several different clients, 

and after our chat, i sent him this link ...

it takes you here ... 

click the images to enlarge them

 there are 34 separate posts on my blog about us repairing stuff.

it is an interesting and often fun and rewarding part of our business.

after i sent the link off i actually took the time to cruise through

the various projects, some of which i scarcely remembered.

these projects tend to come and go quickly.

and below are some excerpts from other writers' take on the process ...

so true here

below from a new yorker article on the 

new restoration department at the whitney in new york

below are some images selected from the link above

 'antique repairs and restorations' 

showing some of things we have fixed in the last 40+ years ... 

rereading these posts this rainy afternoon has been quite a trip for me ...

chance to be a hero

it's a long story

with a happy ending  

and how about this one?

we didn't have to do much, but it sure was fun having it here for a bit

someone spent some time on this one

and we spent some time on the one below

one of the finest writing arm windsors i have seen

all the original pieces were available

tah dah!  all in, all done

one more ...

we had to reattach the top to this 'papier mache' tilt top table

with the little scraps of abalone inlays in the oval border ...

who even knew there was such a thing?

ok, last one  scroll down

 

another interesting repair ...

   

this one came in last week ... missing a few pieces, 

but the main parts were all there 

had to make up a few of the missing inlays

a little glue and masking tape

getting everything to match involved some stain, 

some acrylic colors, and some shellac and wax

ready to go back home ...

nice spot for it!

repairs, and why we like them

above from the book 'the craftsman' by richard sennet 

i've been catching up on my reading lately ...

click the photos to enlarge them

so, last week i had a small run of repairs,

bringing things back to useful life

i got the chair in the first photo above with the missing parts

in a nice cloth grocery bag .. first step was to reglue

the backsplat and get it ready to re install

here it is, all set to go ... 

this was what i refer to as a 'functional restoration'

where the object is reassembled using the guide line

'if it doesn't make sense financially to fix it correctly. fix it any way you can'.

a 'proper' restoration was not financially feasible, yet the repairs

i did here will extend the chair's life, (barring catastrophe), for the foreseeable future.

and then something comes in the door that just blows you away

yowza!

details, detail, details ... nice black mother of pearl in the peacock's tail

and i love the details on the metalwork .. that alone probably took a couple of minutes

the client inherited this chest from her aunt who collected 

chinese 'stuff' .... i can't imagine who commissioned this one ...

and let's not neglect the back ... i think they threw the 

angles and curves in just for fun ... 

another painted chest required some adjustment and repair to 

the little stubby legs, which may or may not have been original .. 

FUNKY CHAIR !! obviously a green wood construction

check the warp on that seat .. quite a twist!..

point of interest here, after cutting off the front leg a bit to relevel it,
i noticed that the leg was turned from what appears to be a branch, with
the heart included in the turning .. never saw that before .. my guess is circa 1800.

better view of the warped seat

note the fact that the left leg in the rear and the opposite leg in the front
were shortened by at least an inch each .. 

and then we get to my friend Tom's 'music chair'
which he has been sitting in to play his guitar for a good portion of his recent life.
when it arrived, it had three snapped off tenons, one on the top of a leg, two stretcher ends,
and a long spit in the center stretcher ...

the leg top i was able to drill for a 5/8th" oak dowel new tenon, but the stretchers
required turned and scarfed on new tenons with small screws reinforcing the joints
from the bottom of the stretchers.  tom's my age, the chair's quite a bit older,
and we'll see how it goes.  i am hopeful ...

and below, from a previous restoration blog post i wrote a few years ago about repairs ..
that blog post has a link to a new yorker article on
the conservation studio at the new whitney museum ...
the new yorker article is a thought provoking read on art and time passing ...

a cool retro fit

 

well ok, here's a good project ...

this client bought the table above at an auction as 'half of a table', 'several years ago'.

when we got it, it was three pieces, the top, the leaf, and the base below, 

no hinges and no instructions.

so this was the base .. nice carvings! we didn't think much about the hole until after we made some

half size pieces of cardboard and tried to figure out where the pivot point for the main top was.

bingo!  the theoretical pivot point was somewhere in the hole!

so we filled in the hole and attached the top to the base with another circular 'plate' of wood

that was a little larger than the light colored circle in the picture above.

we could see a ghost of where the missing 'plate' rubbed when the top was swiveled.

worked perfectly ..

so then, luckily, we had two pairs of drop leaf table hinges on hand, and they 

were the right size, but the original screw holes didn't line up.

patch the holes, attach the top .. good to go ...

an interesting repair ... 

now if we can just find the mate to it, the client would have a nice dining table

Fixing a family heirloom

another save on the antique repairs and restoration front

this one is a family piece in rosewood and satinwood and i am guessing

18th or early 19th century, french or italian ..
hand sawn veneers, minimal interior gallery work, 

butoverall, definitely a piece worthy of a longer life ..
it'll be good for a while now for sure

@mrwhiskers chris bowlen did most of the work on this one, and he

did a beautiful job piecing back the flaking veneer

it looked not too bad at first glance, but on second glance, 

the veneer just flaked right off

fortunately, the owners were diligent about picking up the pieces,

and we only had to make 2 or three new ones ..

ittook a lot of tape to make it right

a little soap and water, a little wax and out the door ..

as usual, it felt good to make a worthy piece whole again ...