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Our client’s Louis XIV Revival Fauteuil from the nineteenth century
came in for treatment of the textile (gentle cleaning, and stabilizing from the back),
conservation of original finish, and conservation of the upholstery buildup (innards).
Before treatment images above, though some of the gimp is removed.

We start, as we always do, with a assessment while everything is still intact:
what is seen when taking detailed images is exciting.

The hand-carvings are beautiful and in good condition (a sampling),
above; we found no need
for amendments of broken
petals or leaves.
Hand-carving is easily evident, right, where you
can see the makers
hand marks as a smooth
area was carved.

The original finish is intact, with some flaking of
shellac and a beautiful patina.  The finish is extremely dirty.

When the textile is removed
it will be easier to examine
it for small bits of missing yarn, if any; at this time
we saw only two small areas where there may be an issue.

This lovely gimp is stiff
with either glue or topcoats
of shellac.  What we can see now by removing the gimp trim is that the tacking margin on our textile is small and there are bits of fraying under the gimp.  MPF Conservation has ways of mitigating this without reweaving.

Our next steps are pattern making, excavation of the textile, and cleaning.
As we post more I will link to the next posting: follow us so you are notified of updates.

Written by Kate Powell  ©MPF Conservation.
May be printed for your own use ONLY, not for use on blogs without permission.