Monday 15 February 2010

Medallion back and a metamorphic desk

It's finished!


So now I can get on with the backlog of work. Today was spent re-gluing 11 wonky chairs so that their seats can be replaced, 8 rush and two cane. Then we prepared a very unusual metamorphic table desk for re-finishing, it is one of the most unusual we have ever seen. The top is in two sections and opens on hinges to reveal a full writing slope which rises by a connected mechanism from the interior. There was a problem with one of the top hinged sections, it wouldn't go down fully, so we had to remove the bottom boards to find out why. This is what we found.....

A hundred years or more of lost items hidden away and jammed in the lifting mechanism. Postcards and photos from the turn of the 20th century, pencils, invoices from the 1950's, business cards, all sorts of ephemera, but the culprit for stopping the top from closing properly was the wooden support from the base of the inwell. How it ever found its way below the writing slope we shall never know!

A real treasure trove of history which we shall return to the owners of this beautiful desk.

No comments: