Case Study: George II Walnut Bachelor's Chest - Pye Antiques Restoration
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Case Study: George II Walnut Bachelor’s Chest

13 Sep Case Study: George II Walnut Bachelor’s Chest

Posted at 09:18h in The Journal by Robert Pye
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A client bought this lovely George II Walnut Bachelor’s Chest to us as it was in desperate need of restoration to its original glory. The chest suffered from many problems. The top substructure was comprehensively split with bubbles and missing veneer. It was also off-kilter when open. bachelorchest_small
107_small1 This picture shows some of the damage to the top inside so one of our first tasks was to carefully lift the veneer on the top, inside and outside.
This photo shows the hinged half of the top after the original veneer had be carefully lifted. The split top was  reassembled and any previous shrinking compensated for. Then the early stages of the re-laying the original book matched top veneer. The same happened to the burr that was in side. 260_small
372_small1 These images show both sides of the hinges top after the re-laying of all the veneer to the same configuration as original. The lighter colours are the patches.
These images show the early stages of bleaching both the new patches and bringing back the original colour. 373_small1374_small1
367_small1 This image shows some of the patches we had to put on the carcass of the chest.
The work we also did on the piece included closing splits in the carcass, filleting it as necessary, re-laying the other veneers, gluing down bubbles throughout, patching cross-grain mouldings and veneer throughout. We then closed splits in drawer bottoms, replaced drawer runners and stops as necessary, secured drawer dividers and straightening the off kilter Loppers ensure the top was level when open.. 434finished_smallfinished435_small
367_small1 This photo shows the finished item after sympathetically cleaning the rest, rento-killing, colouring and polishing back to it original condition. We think we achieved our aim to try and make this piece look like it had never needed this level of restoration!.