The surviving rear leg on the dressing table was used as a model for shaping and carving two new front legs and one new rear leg. While only the sides of the rear legs had carving on the knees, the carving on the front legs wrapped around the knee completing the bilateral design. The matching … Continue reading Dressing Table Restoration Part 4, Legs

The high chest with the paper label of Thomas Tufft in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has not been web published to date but is on display in the American Art galleries in the museum.  The carved fronds that would have spiraled off the volutes of the scroll mouldings are missing and … Continue reading “Mahogany Drawers With fret & Dentels”

Most of the information needed to restore the missing elements of the dressing table were present in the surviving table. But research was necessary to confidently restore elements that had no surviving counterpart.  I was also interested in gathering as much information as possible about related objects. The research phase of the project was extensive … Continue reading Philadelphia Dressing Table Restoration, Part 2, Research

A project from years ago was the restoration of this Philadelphia dressing table c. 1775 that had been significantly damaged and had undergone an extensive restoration in the past. The previous restoration, which included the creation of three new legs and their fluted corner columns, was well intended but the new parts did not match, … Continue reading Philadelphia Dressing Table Restoration, Part 1, First Look