Two Of A Kind Louis XV Desks

There are some styles that come through our shop  that come in so often that become quite familiar.  We see quite a bit of Duncan Phyfe tables with broken legs.  We see lots of Oak Pressback Chairs with loose joints or broken spindles, and frequently we have brewer chairs come to us with big holes in the seat.

What is quite Uncommon is for a beautiful Louis XV writting desk to come in, and then before it leaves to have another Louis XV writting desk to come in.  But that is just what has happened.  They have their differences,  one has straight sides while the other has curved sides,  but they both have intricate marquetry, Cabriole legs and brass decor on the corners and drawers, and they both have three drawers on the front and 3 faux drawers on the opposite side.


Not only are these desks clearly made in the same era,  but we are also doing very similar repairs on each one.  They both will have new leather applied to their writing surface.  (Each customer get to choose the color of leather and the gold tooling design around the edge.)  We are also doing repairs to the veneered wood band around the leather on the top surface of each of the desks, and both desks will have their bases refurbished.  The refurbishing will not make them look brand new, but will instead give them new life, while preserving their old antique finish.

Be sure to check back soon, so that you can see the 'after' pictures of these Louis XV writing desks.

A Little Oil and Wax Go A Long Way!

This beautiful chest just left our shop today, I am glad I got pictures of it before it went!  It came to us with just a few problems,  the first issue we had to deal with is that the top panel of the lid had shrunk.  It was the correct size side to side, but small front to back.  Because of all the intricate carving it would have been extremely expensive to add wood and carve to match.  Instead we agreed to move the panel forward so that there was no gapping on the front, and then we colored the bare lip on the back so that it blended with the rest of the lid.

Our next step was to clean and wax the entire exterior of the chest.  In had some discoloration to the wood, where patches were lighter in color then the rest,  and there was some odd whiteness in the carving.  We still don't know what caused that or if someone at some point did it on purpose.  But the Georgian Mahogany colored wax got rid of all of those color problems and gave the chest a gorgeous deep sheen.

 The interior of the chest was very dry when it came into our shop.  Not only did this do nothing for it's beautiful wood grain, but dry wood also brings a host of other problems.  When the wood is dry, it is more susceptible to cracking and breaking, as well as shrinkage. (hmmm, could this have lead to that top shrinking?)  Also, the pores are more open which means that they can catch moisture born issues and various molds.

We used two coats of Tung Oil on the interior of the chest which fixed the 'dry' problems and also brought out the gorgeous wood grain patterns.  I almost think this trunk should just be left empty so that the marble pattern on the bottom can be properly displayed and admired!  I know that will not happen so instead we can all just admire it in this picture.

Our customer was thrilled when she saw the finished result.  It is reactions like that, that make our work so satisfying.  We love a happy customer.