Restoration of a Louis XVI period provincial commode. It is constructed of softwood and oak, and veneered with violet wood, Made of rosewood, sycamore maple, boxwood, ebony, and stained maple, the chest features a bucolic scene at its center, depicting two women playing cards between two trees, watched by a man. In the background, a house and a church are visible. The entire scene is framed by a medallion of flowers engraved and colored with black and red wax. The two lower drawers are framed by a frieze representing a ribbon wrapped with the same engraved flowers. The upper drawer is veneered with faux fluting of boxwood and ebony.
State of affairs report
The structure was severely deteriorated. All the joints had come loose, and the chest of drawers was completely unstable. The side panels were detached from the legs. The veneer glue was very dry, and there were some gaps. The top, bottom, back, and intermediate panels had been replaced with plywood.
The Restoration
To replace the plywood with new fir, I had to dismantle the chest of drawers. The operation was fairly straightforward, given the poor condition of the joints: broken tenons, shattered tenon cheeks… I remade all the back panels in fir, oxidized and stained the surface. The reverses remain new, with tool marks for easy dating.
I re-glued the sides and rehydrated all the veneered surfaces by vacuum-inserting glue. I made the grafts with sawn veneer, scraped, sanded and cut to the correct thickness as a backing, then glued with mammal glue.
I then slightly thinned the old varnish, then reworked it with pumice and alcohol, before applying a clear varnish with a pad. I cleaned the bronzes with a steam jet.
For traditional work