End of Year -- Major Projects

The big event of December was finishing my program, with its End of Year Show.

My projects, as you may remember, were a pair of chairs from Holyroodhouse Palace – the royal residence in Edinburgh, Scotland , and a gilt settee, plus a small project of two gilt footstools. The show was basically the ten master’s candidates’ pieces on display in an area of the library, with an opening event with wine and the ubiquitous mince pies. Two-bit mince pies are the standard hors d’oeuvre here in the month of December.

Before the show we were each assessed on our written logs and our work, a viva voce which involves standing in front of your work and talking about it and explaining the decisions you made along the way. This can be tricky because, as a green student, some of the decisions were not mine but I had to sound as though they were. First there is an internal assessment, with tutors one knows, and the next day is the external assessment, with someone from outside the University. Our external examiner comes from Birmingham Museum. Questions are asked about what chemicals you used and why did you doing things this or that way? It was nerve racking to wait for, but not that bad once you were actually on the spot.

The high point of the show was the appearance of the Senior Conservator of the Royal Collection, saying how pleased he was with the end result. After living with the pieces for so many months it was gratifying to finally get some feedback.
The frames date from about 1740, and the needlepoint from 1915 (a copy of the original 18th c. designs). The chairs are part of a large set, augmenting the original set of 8 chairs made in Edinburgh in 1723 for Henrietta Duchess of Gordon. Her son lived at Holyroodhouse Palace at the latter part of the 18th c, which is how they came to be there. The needlepoint was made during WWI as a project of Queen Mary’s to return the set to its original scheme, since most of the set had been covered in crimson cut velvet by Queen Victoria.

The chairs arrive, along with a Boulle cabinet in really bad shape:

Brass plaques on the back of the chairs:








First step is always Hoovering:

Linen and jute from previous conservation work was removed with wallpaper paste, steam, and scrapers. Old upholstery was removed. The damage was now clear: broken tenons, much material missing from furniture beetle and tack damage, broken ear, corner, and crest rail, loose joints and small bits barely attached. A 19th c. shellac (not available in 18th c.) was on the show wood, obscuring the beauty of the mahogany.

The frames were partially taken apart, joints re-glued, tenons repaired, furniture beetle and tack damage repaired, missing material filled in, missing decorative piece re-carved; legs were stripped of shellac and hot wax was applied. They were then upholstered in the mid-18th century manner. The needlepoint was cleaned, repaired where necessary, and put back on the chairs.

God-awful tenons:
False tenons clamped and ready to be shaped, and new mahogany corner:
Colle de poisson (fish glue) is used because it dries very strong and flexible to allow for wood’s movement, but was not available in the 18th c, when only hide glue was available. Holes are drilled into the tenons, steam injected to hydrate joints, then colle de poisson injected into holes. Requires three days to cure, unlike hide glue that only needs overnight.

Typical repair to tack hole damage, using West Systems epoxy and microlight:








A new filigree bit was carved where the mahogany was broken:



















The finish for the legs, after stripping the shellac, was a hot wax that we made up and applied with a brush and a hot air gun, cured, and buffed with shoe brushes. It makes a virulent mess so should be done before any top covers go on.

Nice leg:



















Chair upholstery in process, showing the early 18th c. stuffed (but not stitched)edge:















Calico stage complete:



















Back textile in need of repair (note now faded the colours are from original yellow):



















Backing the crest rail area with linen and couch stitching:



















Cleaning the seats with white spirit, very gently:

Reinstalling the top covers:


































The finished chairs, next to the restored Boulle cabinet that took Andreas 225 hours to restore:

Total time spent: 115.25 hours









The chairs with their new covers going back in the Royal Collections van:















Brochure from Holyroodhouse showing other members of set:



Much more information is in my written work, if you want to see it.





The other major piece I did was a carved and gilt Louis XVI-style settee, probably made around 1870. This piece has no provenance but is never-the-less a beautifully made piece of furniture, and was a typical 19th c. reproduction in that it was very well made and successful at copying the proportions and aesthetic of 18th c. French furniture.

The condition of the piece was structurally sound, but there was no upholstery and the gilding was both black with dirt and very chipped and generally coming off. The owner wanted it to look “shabby chic” rather than “bling,” so the goal was not to strip all the gesso and gilding and redo it, but to clean it, stabilize the gesso, clay, and gold layers so that it wouldn’t continue to fall off. In other words, it was a conservation job, not a restoration job. However, a bit of ribbon and a leaf tip were broken, so new material was fashioned out of epoxy and microlight, then filed into shape.




Frame stripped, newly webbed and sprung:




Back, first stuffing and stitched edge:

Close-up of the stitched edge. Note the dirt on the gilding:










After upholstering it up to the calico stage I cleaned and repaired the gilding. Cleaning took 37 hours. Repairing the gilding involves applying gesso (rabbit skin glue and whiting) to all the areas where it is missing or degraded, applying clay bole to those areas, in-painting with water colour, toning (colouring with earth pigments and gelatine size to blend in the new work with the old), and a little re-gilding.

Cleaning the gilding involves experi-
mentation with different agents; the idea is to remove the dirt but not the gilding, which is very water soluble.
Frequently gilding and clay is imitated with watercolour, which can even be burnished. New gesso (white) being painted with watercolour:


Areas that would receive more wear were not in-painted but the clay was replaced. Red clay is mixed up and painted onto the areas of gesso and then burnished with a brush:


Finished settee with top cover:

Detail of double welt cord trim:

Total time taken: 140.5 hours

This is a very cursory explanation of what work was involved and I would be very happy to show my reports to anyone…!

Love, Ellie