Restoration of a XVIII Century French Secretaire
My name is Luis Stortini Sabor. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1959 and began my practice as antique furniture restorer nine years ago.
My area of work comprehends XVIII and XIX century French, British and American furniture and in a less important way, wooden objects.
This interesting piece of furniture belongs to the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was made in France in the XVIII Century by the cabinetmaker Louis-Noël Malle, who was reputed as a master in the marquetry and intarsia work. It's a minor work due to its not so much sophisticated panels in lacquer and mother of pearl and the obvious use of relative common woods in its structure.
I was consulted due to the fact of both front legs having collapsed during the transportation of the object.
It's left leg had fallen into pieces showing the misfortuned previous restoration which consisted in drilling through the small foot of the "secretaire a abattant" and gluing there a steel pipe full and surrounded by a massive amount of polyester resin, tinted in various colours, and filling this resin all the holes produced by xylophagous insects. The main reason to be worried about was the fact that polyester resin is completely IRREVERSIBLE (it can't be removed neither by chemicals products nor by temperature changes).
I will show you the methods employed in the restoration of the left leg, being the most deteriorated.
This picture shows you the extensive damage made by the wood-eating insects and the deep penetration of the resin, applied to glue the steel tubing (tinted through the use of a white "filler"). This piece is one of the two remains of the left leg
This is the other piece of the broken left leg. It is clearly seen the use of three kinds of polyester resin (black, brown and white).
The real problem with these two pieces was the combination of an extremely deteriorated and fragile wood and an extremely hard resin embedded in the wood. The challenge was to remove the resin without more losses of wood and so allowing the consolidation of it, through the absorption of REVERSIBLE resins.
The primary step being to eliminate the polyester resin, I proceed to its mechanical removal through the use of a high speed mini-drill using extremely tiny steel bits , with minimum losses of wood.
This mechanical removal of the polyester resin showed a more extensive deterioration of the legs and the immediate structures.
Being always unsafe not to suppose an active work of the xylophagous insects, all affected sections of the secretaire were treated with a combination of insecticides dissolved in organic solvents.
Due to the extensive damage and the need of a deep penetration, was developed a system of slow and progressive (drop by drop) penetration of the insecticides. A very similar procedure was used to allow the penetration of the consolidating resin.
The method chosen to preserve the original SURFACE of the legs was the use of a wooden cylindrical core that, going through all the length of the legs, would became the real supporting segment, and using the old leg as decorative surface. It was necessary to mold a resin piece for the left leg that allowed to join and glue the remains of it, so as to be drilled along its main axis.
The wooden cores were made from cylindrical pieces of a very hard and reliable wood.
Once tested the cores and drilled the old legs and posts, the cores were glued with animal hide glue (you guessed: REVERSIBLE). Some sections were painted with water -colour painting (REVERSIBLE again) so as to avoid attracting attention and allowing the appreciation of the object.
Once finished the previous step, the old leg is mounted over the wooden core and the bronze ferrule is attached to the core. In this way the bronze ferrules and the wooden cores glued to the posts became the real legs of the secretaire and the old ones remained to preserve the aesthetic unity of the object.
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