Featured Remediating weathering on a 19th century Coromandel writing slope

All, I've just taken possesion of a striking French-style writing slope, maker's label showing "T.A. Simpson, 154 Regent St London", who I understand made very fine slopes for London and Paris markets. Overall it is in very good shape considering the age, except for what appears to be weathering on the top left (photos attached). Would you expert wood restorers out there have tips for the restoration of this wood? I have no experience with Coromandel (let alone something of this caliber!).

And yes those eye-popping medallions are hand-painted porcelain!

Tagging several folks who have contributed so much to past posts of mine ... thanks so very much!

@Shangas , @808 raver , @Figtree3 , @Ghopper1924 , @evelyb30 , @komokwa , @DragonflyWink

 

@verybrad

 

Ai...sez....

Restoring coromandel wood—an extremely dense, rare, and valuable southeast Asian ebony variety used in 19th-century luxury boxes and furniture—requires preserving its original patina without stripping or aggressive sanding. Key steps include gentle cleaning, finish revitalization with specialized restorers, and applying a protective wax coat.

I find that more or less what I can come up with on my own..

 

In a perfect world, you'd remove the brass hardware, sand/polish, and refinish/stain. Not sure if you can do that with this without damaging the porcelain medallions...

 

Coincidentally, I just came across a somewhat similar one on eBoo for $125 US. Looks to be in a bit rougher shape than yours, though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1279960309...55-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050

 

still oozes charm , though !!!!!!!!

 

Thanks @Shangas ... some of the screws holding the brass on are very wee, I'd be a little nervous of snapping one or more of those too!

 

I’d try Howard’s Restore-a-Finish, matched to the tone of the wood finish. They don’t make one for Coromandel, but something like Walnut may be a good match. It’s very non-invasive and will enable you to keep the original finish. Apply it carefully.

 

Really doesn't look like it needs much. I would clean it first with some mineral spirits. If there is raised grain, you might either decide to live with it or sand lightly. Sanding will probably change the look so I would not jump to the conclusion that it needs it. Once prepped, try the Howards. You could, alternately, use a tung oil varnish.

 

I've used tung oil before, but in the case of a thing like this mineral spirits and leave be sound safest. It's easier to fix original wear than a bad repair.

One of our members restores boxes for fun. Brain is not kicking lose.. @808 raver ??

 

Thanks for the tag, @TWG . I don't know anything about restoration of something like this. I'll just say, it is lovely!

 

From what I can see all that's damaged is the finish, it's very unlikely to be the coromandel that's damaged because that's ebony and water doesn't really do anything to ebony. There are 2 reasons why this could have happened 1) water and 2) the polish just got old both are very easy fixes for a restorer or if you want to do it a home you will need to be careful, it's a stunning slope, the brass is just top notch, the wood is the best you can get and no longer available to anyone and the porcelain probably done by Worcester. With all that aside, if you are going to do this at home you will need some 0000 steel wool, french polish, 2000 wet and dry sandpaper and a very careful hand, first very likely go over just the affected area with the sandpaper just to get the raised polish off (I do mean very lightly) then you will need to match the polish, this would have been highly french polished so all the grain was filled, you don't want to disturb that, buy a small brush with very fine bristles, every coat of french polish you apply wants to be the thinnest you can do, the first coat will melt the polish near the wood and the cloudiness will disappear, keep applying very thin coats until the polish is of equal height to the surrounding area or slightly above then using the 2000 wet and dry very carefully flatten, then 1 more very thin coat of french polish. You will use the steel wool to take the shine off the new polish BTW you need to let each coat dry and it needs to be well dry before the steel wool, after that just a coat of beeswax polish on all the outside and your done.

 

Thanks for the terrific detail @808 raver ! I'd like to give it a shot myself first, perhaps on a small test area; I'm seeing French Polish products from Liberon and Fiddes available, would you recommend these? Also, about the brass - would you attempt polishing, or leave be? I know there may be strong opinions on either side, regarding patina and all ... but the gentleman I mentioned in another post who was a world-class, classically trained boulle restorer of almost 50 years experience, did recommend polishing brass; he took the position that it honored the maker's work. Having said that though, the brass on this piece is highly figured and would be a difficult polishing task!

 

I think the repair isn't that hard, maybe try what I've said on a lesser piece before attempting the slope, practice makes perfect? Unfortunately I mix my own french polish so I can't really comment but both makers are well known in the restoring world and both have a very good reputation, learning how easy using french polish is will stand you in good stead in the future. Now for the brass, this opens up a whole new can of worms, if this were mine I would restore the whole box, I would remove the brass, re-french polish the whole box, use salt and vinegar to remove 99% of the tarnish and then polish to a high shine with brasso but this needs to be done when the brass is off the box. The problems you will have, the Coromandel is a type of ebony and ebony shrinks around screws, it's quite likely the screw will snap, 1) you will need to drill out the remainder 2) you will need to find the right size brass screw (old stock) 3) you will need to shape the screwhead once it's in place, do not underestimate how hard it will be to find the right screws, they will be Nettlefolds screws, the brass is a different coulor and the smaller they are the harder they are to get, you have to buy new old stock (they are not made anymore) and can cost a fortune for a few. TBH I doubt you will be able to slide paper under the brass to protect the wood from the brasso and salt and vinegar, leaving marks around the brass just looks really bad, (although the slope would look stunning fully restored). Because this slope doesn't need a full restoration and because you aren't an experienced restorer I would leave it if I were you until you have a number of restorations under your belt and this isn't the sort of piece you learn on. I maybe have 200 restorations under my belt and still I would be nervous about doing this, fixing the finish is one thing removing the brass is another.

 

@808 raver is the slope bluumz found on Ebay restorable ? -for $125-that'd be gorgeous fixed up.
PS-'Restorable' with a sane amount of work.

 

If you're nervous, I'd hit it with a damp cloth to get rid of the dust and leave be. I only messed with my great-great grandmother's desk in high school because my mother had misguidedly stripped it when I was in diapers.I couldn't make it worse.

 

Restoring wood, finish, even inlay is ok but this slope that bluumz found is missing pieces of adornment, these are far harder or impossible for restorers to fix.

 

Yeah, I think thats the point, if it's not worth much or it's already bad then have a go but if it's in a good, valuable state then you risk losing your money by trying to make it better. I've had restorations I thought were going to be easy and they end up being a nightmare and restorations I didn't think I could do workout fine. A good example for me was my Khatam fall front cabinet, I bought that over 10 years before I had the guts to tackle it and all the time I was thinking I should have just left it as it was, unrestored it was worth £1000's, I was a big risk to restore but I'm very glad I did.

 

Brilliant advice @808 raver , thanks once again! Researching other sites and boxes, I'm now wondering if the wood is actually Calamander, as the examples I've seen seemed to have more banding to the grain rather than the grainy look I see for Coromandel. A similar wood family I reckon ... but would that change the treatment any?

 

The most mixed up woods in the antique trade because both have straight grain and figured grain, I've even seen well known antique dealers get it wrong. I'm not going to try and explain the difference, I'll leave links but yours is coromandel and that's the one you want it to be lol. It's now extinct, even when your box was made the cost of coromandel was 20x what other exoctic woods would cost, calamander was the lesser alternative. UK box makers would outbid other box makers for the best figured woods, that's why IMHO London made boxes beat French and the rest of the world. You don't find Indian boxes using coromandel even though that's where it comes from. The very best figured coromandel veneers were reserved for the most expensive items like vanity boxes.
Old french polish does become cloudy, maybe your slope does have a very bad patch on a over all cloudy finish? it's very difficult to tell from photos. Anyway it really wouldn't matter if it was coromandel or calamander, the process is the same.
https://www.antiquebox.org/calamander/
https://www.antiquebox.org/coromandel/