Louis XV commode

The commode with a "jumping" effect appears to have been invented during the Regency period, between 1705 and 1730, by the cabinetmaker Charles Cressent, and subsequently became widespread in the Louis XV style. It consists of only two drawers or two rows of drawers. The body is raised on cabriole legs of a medium height, with the body occupying half the height of the piece and the other half the legs. This gives the impression that the piece has legs that allow it to jump like a frog. The width is available in straight, curved, or crossbow shapes. The marble top follows the lines of the front and sides. A horizontal rail separates each drawer; the bottom one is adorned with a bronze-mounted finial.

This chest of drawers has a solid beech frame and is veneered with rosewood framed with violet wood. The three front rails are veneered with satinwood.

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State of affairs report

Upon arrival at the workshop, this chest of drawers presented a major problem: nothing was held together. All the joints and glued pieces had completely separated, and the back legs were entirely detached from the side panels. There were also quite a few missing veneers, precisely because the frame was in poor condition.

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Restoration

To begin, the piece of furniture had to be completely disassembled. It wasn't very difficult; half the work was already done. A small surprise that I greatly appreciated: a small piece of evidence of a former colleague's visit, with this barely legible inscription: "Restored in 1881 on August 11th." The disassembly also allowed us to identify some tool marks and observe previous restorations.

After disassembly, I reattached the rear legs to the sides. Then I performed a vacuum sealing and re-gluing process, having first prepared the missing veneer grafts, taking care to scrape, sand, and shape them to the correct thickness so they wouldn't need to be reworked once glued. I did the same to the drawer fronts. For the crossbars, I re-glued the veneer using traditional methods with a hot block and clamps.

Before reassembling the case, the panels were adjusted to the correct width by gluing a piece of wood to each side so that it would fit into a groove and be invisible. The frame was then reattached using fish glue.

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The old varnish was then stripped with a stripper that easily removed the varnish film without damaging the wood pores, thus preserving the original fill. The grafts were then oxidized, and I applied a French polish using a recipe based on sandarac, elemi, mastic, and colorless shellac. This varnish recipe was found in a late 19th-century book.

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You can see some of the steps involved in restoring this chest of drawers in the following video…

To see previous restorations : https://ebenisterie-mathieuvath.fr/en-ce-moment-a-latelier/