Once the various structural elements were glued back together, I tackled the tortoiseshell and brass marquetry. As you'll see, on this cartel clock it's in very, very bad condition; practically nothing is holding. So, the brass has to be completely removed. The tortoiseshell, however, is holding well; it's only partially detached.
The first step in restoring this marquetry is therefore to remove and lay down each brass element.
The second step involves cleaning off the old glue, which in this particular case is blistered, and furthermore, some parts have been reattached with superglue and neoprene adhesive, which adds even more work. While old animal glue cleans up very easily, modern glues require scraping and removal with scissors.
Next, once the glue has been cleaned, I can carefully assess the missing pieces in order to take impressions and reproduce them. Sometimes I only take an impression of the brass and then reattach it. Then, I take impressions of the missing scale pieces and reattach them. But if the missing pieces are too large, I can perform both steps simultaneously. It's always a case-by-case basis.
As you can see in this last photo, there's still a lot of work to be done. More next week…
