Over 100-year-old furniture saved by passionate specialists

We told you in the article about furniture reconditioning and restoration that it's a good idea to call in the specialists if you have an old and precious piece of furniture and want to give it a new lease of life. In the meantime, I have found the best example to back up my assertion: a piece of lounge furniture Chippendale more than 100 years old. It had been inherited from grandparents by a family keen to keep it, but for objective reasons they could not keep it in very good condition. When they finally had the necessary space they had the unpleasant surprise to see that the furniture had deteriorated quite a lot and they decided they needed specialists to save it.

They searched online for a firm that could convince them, and that's how they came to SaveMob. They contacted them and they came, saw the furniture, assessed the situation and told them what could be done. It was left for them to think and give an answer. It didn't take them long to make up their minds because they really wanted that piece of furniture and the company inspired their confidence. And so began the long and difficult process of rescuing an old and valuable piece of furniture.

First came the guys from the transportation who took each piece, each more or less damaged piece, inventoried them, noted the details of where they came from and other such details, loaded them in the truck and brought them to the workshop in Bucharest.

At the workshop the inventory was taken again and work began. The pieces were carefully analyzed and it was discovered that they were heavily attacked by decay, some of the pieces were even compromised.

There were also some parts - the legs of a chest of drawers or a chair - that simply could not be rebuilt, and the only solution was to replace them.

The next stage was to clean the furniture down to the wood, take it apart and re-glue it, and repair any flaws and detachments. Carved ornaments that could be detached were carefully cleaned so as not to damage the carving. Everything was brought to the clean wood stage, at which point the traces of the carving were even more evident.

So, "stripped" of the varnish coating, the pieces were first treated against the woodworm. I say first because the operation was repeated several times, at one-week intervals, to make sure that all the larvae had been killed. To do this the pieces of furniture were loaded into a truck that could be closed airtight and sprayed with concentrated anti-cary solution until saturation. The truck was then closed and the furniture remained in that environment until the next day.

Over the course of a week, all of the quarry holes were puttied, repairs and gluing were done and the missing pieces were copied and fitted in place. At the end of the week the antique treatment was resumed and the furniture pieces were left in the truck all weekend.

Then came the coloring. The furniture was originally black so the look was kept. Cuttlefish ink was used to get the intense color, as they used to color in the past. This is the natural dye that cuttlefish release when they are attacked or detect a periol. The dye is intense and colors the wood almost covering the grain. When it dries it takes on a bluish-gray color that turns black when varnished.

Ready stained, the furniture is back in the truck for another weekend of antiques solution. And more checking and grouting to make sure no holes or maggots were missed.

And then came the varnishing, which was done with shellac to get that special sheen of yesteryear. It's not easy to work with and few people still know the old techniques. Fortunately, the company benefits from the services of a specialist in the field, Mr. Iulian Burcică, who worked for more than 30 years at the Doina musical instrument factory, specializing in piano restoration. Mr. Iulian is retired, aged 69, but continues to restore pianos and valuable furniture. He happily comes to work and tries to pass on the baton. He has promised he won't retire before grooming a successor. I told him at one point that I'm sure he knows a lot of stories about the furniture and pianos he rescues. "Novels," he replied. We decided to get together as soon as possible, to sit and tell stories.

But back to the application of shellac. For those who don't know, shellac is a natural varnish made from the resin secreted by an insect - lac - found in India and Thailand. The resin is dissolved in varying proportions in ethyl alcohol. Shellac gives furniture a very beautiful appearance, but the application technique is difficult and demanding. And when the wood is stained black, a very demanding color, it is even more difficult. Many consecutive coats must be applied to achieve the mirror sheen.

The Chippendale salon needed 60 coats of varnish and over 200 hours of work. To achieve the desired result, the varnish was applied in a continuous circular motion using a chamois (a ball of cotton wool and wool wool put into a finet cloth). It was started with thin layers, the thickness increasing slightly with each layer. The circular movement must not be stopped because otherwise a dent would appear in the spot. After each layer the varnish was allowed to dry and then sanded by hand. That's how all the salon pieces were done, and they were not few.

After many weeks of 1000 hours of actual work for the salon, everything was ready. The owner was sent photos to see the result and was also invited to the workshop. Incidentally, this is how SaveMob works. The customer can drop by the workshop at any time to see the intermediate stages of the restoration and at the end, the furniture doesn't leave until the owner gives his or her approval. When the OK is received the furniture is packed and transported to the customer's home. Here it is unpacked and fixed in place by the company's employees. This is what happened with the Chippendale salon and the owners were delighted to be surrounded by furniture that reminded them of their childhood.

photos in the article are property of SaveMob