Cornwall Furniture Restoration

Restoring antique furniture, an early 19th century dining table 

I have recently been commissioned to carry out furniture repairs to a rather sad and old dining table. To say the antique table needs a little TLC would be an understatement, but in its hay day this early nineteenth century rosewood and brass inlaid table would have graced any dining room, and being large enough to seat six people would be able to tell a few stories, if indeed it was able to speak, which it is not. Furniture restoration was  never the less neccessary , just being short of two hundred years old, it has survived many a trauma and spillage, enough said ! The table has a striking rosewood veneered top which has two rings of brass stringing around the outer edge. The ornately antique carved base is also veneered over mahogany and has a brass catch which allows the top to be tilted to an upright position.The image on the right shows the sad looking fellow awaiting his forthcoming operation. Over  the next couple of weeks I hope to be able to show you the gradual restoration of this piece of antique furniture. Let the repairs commence..

Nearly 200 years of use had taken its toll on this table and many of the joints had dried out, and so it was neccessary for the antique furniture restorer to clean and reglue much of the rail under the top as well as the bad crack  on the top. Once this had been accomplished ,all the missing turned bobbled moulding was replaced and glued back in position. Any pieces of missing veneer were replaced and the channels for the brass inlay were rescratched so as to take the missing brass.

The image to the left shows the table top after the crack  repairs had been carried out. This involved taking the top off , cleaning the joint and fixing back to the rosewood veneered framework.The turned mouldings were then glued back around the edge and any missing veneer was then replaced. The whole antique top was then checked over for splits and cracks and was then cleaned back prior to polishing.. Work was then commenced on the base of the table which involved similar work.