Featured Restoring a 19th century maritime telescope

Hello all - I recently acquired a large 19th century British maritime telescope, in rather rough condition. The looser brass pieces I reckon I can fix up, but I'm not sure how best to approach restoration of the wood body, which has numerous chips and stains as shown in the photos. It is possibly mahogany. The telescope measures about 20 inches closed, and about 35 with the single draw extended. The optics appear to be intact.

I gather that the maker's mark "G. Bracher" indicates a George Bracher, who was a London-based optician building telescopes in the period between 1826 and 1840. I'm going to hazard a guess that since the inscription states "Day & Night", rather than the more commonly recognized "Day or Night", perhaps this might be one of his earlier products

Any tips on the wood restoration would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all. @Shangas - any of your restoration experience would I'm sure be helpful!

 

@Shangas
@2manybooks

 

Basic brass polish would do for cleaning the metalwork. As for dealing with the woodwork, I'm not an expert on that. I suspect you'd have to sand it down, use wood-filler, and then stain it all up again to get a consistent colour.

That said, the wood sheating was not particularly thick on these telescopes, I don't think, so you'd have to be careful with doing that.

 

On closer inspection, it appears the reddish color is some form of old lacquer, as some of the chips do reveal the wood underneath. So as you say, a careful sanding to remove that old layer, and we might have a decent start. Once the sanding is done, would you recommend tung oil to bring out the wood grain? I've had great success using that with other wood types.

I'm wondering if Mr Bracher was a telescope maker of some repute - apparently the Smithsonian has one of his.

 

I've typically used either Danish Oil, or French Polish (methylated spirits + shellac flakes in-solution) rubbed/brushed onto the surface of any woodwork I've restored, although I haven't done much of it. Danish Oil gives a more matte finish in my experience, while French polish is more glossy.

 

When you said rough I expected something much worse. I would just clean it up, Polish if you prefer, and leave it with it's earned scars.

 

Agreed, wholeheartedly!

 

https://jamesdjulia.com/item/lot-406-one-draw-brass-telescope-by-g-bracher-london-92153/

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Totally agree with Mirana!

 

Agree. It is an antique, while TLC is good, you don't want it to look like a replica.

 

The brass parts were also probably protected with a lacquer coating originally, which would be typical for early scientific instruments. It would also have helped protect it from corrosion caused by exposure to salt water spray.

 

Wholeheartedly agree!

 

I much appreciate all the inputs! Here is an example I think of what the underlying wood might look like, sans the old finish. http://fp.optics.arizona.edu/antiques/Telescope/Catalogue/T02/T02.htm

 

That is supposing that it is the same wood! Personally, I'd leave it all as it is, just give it a light waxing to give the surfaces a nice lustre and leave it at that. The Brass has a beautiful patina that is hard to replicate properly.

 

My personal preference for such items is to leave as much of its history intact as I can without sacrificing longevity. It’s yours, so of course you can do as you please, but honestly seeing it after it was sanded would make me sad, unless it’s so damaged you need to make repairs to ensure structural stability.