Projects
17th Century Italian Ebonised Cabinet: Clean, repair and stabilise
Italian 17th century cabinet, Bramall Hall: clean stabilise and improve old repairs
The cabinet has been on display for some time. It had been victim of intervention by visitors with loss off stones, broken parts, loose elements and detaching parts of structure. There was dust, ingrained grime, alignment problems, degraded old adhesive, excess adhesive, poor old fills and restoration attempts.
The cabinet was vacuumed overall using Hepa filters, detached and lost elements and areas of most concern were examined. an overall clean of detail was completed during which all unstable parts were recorded and if looses either secured or detached or and all detached parts set aside. The separated parts were cleaned and conserved then set aside while the main structure was stabilised and made ready for reinstallation of detached pieces. Excess or degraded old adhesive was removed. Unsightly fills were improved or removed. Old damage on the proper right figure which requires further treatment was recorded, improved within limits of this project and recommended in the report for future conservation attention. Stable acrylic resins were used to adhere all loose and detached elements, Japanese tissue in acrylic resin was installed as wedges in small structural spaces and toned. The structural repairs and improvements complete all elements were installed. Losses in decorative stones were discussed with the curator and the most obtrusive replaced on agreement with a resin fill toned to blend with the neighbouring ones.