Dunbar created the Circular Desk, shown above, before treatment. It was designed in the fifties by Edward Wormley, AIA, 1907-1995. The teak desk had its original leather intact, a real find! The desk is teak wood with built-in bookshelves, and hinged drawers which swing open (photos throughout).
“Modernism means freedom—freedom to mix, to choose, to change, to embrace the new but to hold fast to what is good.” Edward Dunbar, from collectdunbar.com.
Wormley was an architect and furniture designer, along with others such as Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. Wormley worked solely for Dunbar. From collectdunbar.com, “Rarely does a prominent designer collaborate with only one manufacturer. The DUNBAR and Wormley relationship lasted over 30 years. As such, Wormley’s primary body of work is related to and owned by DUNBAR.”
This is a great post for Throwback Thursday!
For the desk below, descriptions will be as follows:
- LF-: Left-facing
- RF-: Right-facing
- Top and bottom are fairly evident
- Front is the side that a guest would approach
- Backside is the side where the person sits to write
ASSESSMENT
One item brought the desk to us; a puppy scratch on the lowest book shelf, shown below in images at our client’s home.
The desk was in otherwise good condition, however,
- there were veneer issues on the bottom rosewood plinth on both sides, and
- hinging issues which threatened to fail if not treated, shown below in REPARATION.
In studio before treatment, above and below.
REPARATION
VENEER
Above, the veneer which was hanging by a thread was removed.
New veneer was created from rosewood, matched both in grain and in thickness.
It was then cut to fit the missing veneer, left.
The area it was to fill was prepared, that is, cleaned and trimmed to accept the veneer.
Once ready, the veneer was cut to the exact size of the loss. Hide glue was applied to both the bare plinth and the veneer. It was then set into the loss, clamped and left to cure for two days, shown above.
Once the clamps were removed, the rosewood was colored with dyes to match the surrounding historical veneer, right.
In the two areas where the veneer lifted but was still viable, shown above and below, Mitchell inserted hide glue under the lifted veneer, shown left. This softened the veneer enough that it did not crack.
The glued veneer was then clamped to cure and left for 24 hours under clamps.
The veneer replaced, right, but before finish work.
We finished the new veneer plinth with pigmented shellac, not shown.
FYI, the name Dunbar is stamped under the center drawer, shown left. The downside to stamping a drawer, is that if the drawer is lost, the piece goes unidentified.
We thought that it would be interesting to share the underside of the desk for those interested in Dunbar’s furniture; it is a side you never see!
HINGED DRAWERS
The hinged drawer had been brought to us before the drawer ripped out, which would have caused serious damage to the veneer and drawer structure.
The hinged drawer which is on its way to becoming unhinged, above.
Mitchell removed the hinged drawer, above left, and repaired the hinge (not shown). It was a matter of thoughtfully considering what parts of the hinge needed to be gently moved back into place.
In fact, a good deal of our work is patiently considering the object, and really looking at what might not be aligned or missing a part.
The desk bore holes were conserved in anticipation of reattachment, image two.
After both hinge and drawer were repaired, the drawer was reunited with the desk.
SCRATCH
The worst issue with a puppy scratch, shown left, is that unlike a surface abrasion it had the weight of a paw crushing the grains. this was also a cross-grain scratch, which cut across grain lines, making them hard to reestablish.
The first thing we did was use warm water only on the scratch to raise the grains if possible, not shown.
That helped some, but not enough.
Kate mixed a shellac to infill the scratch, shown right, and used a tiny brush to fill the scratch, shown above.
We recommended the desk be cleaned after treatment and polished to bring up the lovely original finish; other finish issues were declined to be treated.
Below, a detail of the area before and after treatment.
AFTER
Hinging mechanism once again working, above;
below, the beautiful desk after treatment.
INSTALLATION
Our clients were delighted with the results; the desk back home again, below.
dkatiepowell @ aol.com / mitchellrpowell @ aol.com
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503.970.2509 / 541.531.2383
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