Hi everyone I'm new here so please go easy on me! I know nooothing about antique furniture I have inherited a table and am trying to work out what it is. It appears to be almost identical to https://www.maryleboneantiques.co.u...e-french-mahogany-leather-console-side-table/ but I'm a bit sceptical about the brass coloured "ormolu" mounts/mouldings. Mine seem to be made of a kind of glued wood mulch painted brass colour, rather than an actual metal, and held on with little pins. Can anyone shed any light on what that means? Is it a 1930s french table like the one in the link above, or is it something else? I've attached some photos. I'm in the UK. The "ormolu" is on three sides only like the one on the link shown. Any help greatly appreciated I couldn't find anything in any of the forums.
Your console table does look quite similar to the one in your link. The time period would indeed be 1930-50s. I imagine the wood is mahogany. Ormolu is gilt metal, so I don’t know if yours is a less expensive version, or if the one in the link has had the ormolu material misidentified. Just FYI antique furniture must generally be at least 100 years old. So I would call it a revival piece ca. 1940s.
Thanks Ghopper. Do you know what this kind of gold colour papier-mache type moulding might be? Does it have a name?
Ok thanks both. I might take a casting and make a replacement with plaster of paris, or I might just sell the thing - too many projects at the moment!
A quick further question if I may - I'd like to give it a bit of a clean up. I guess just basic furniture polish for the wood, but what is a safe way to clean up the leather on top? I don't want to stain it as it looks nice
Saddle soap is made for leather. Put some of the soapy mixture on a cloth, making sure the cloth isn't moist, just damp, and rub on the stains. If you can't find saddle soap, a very mild, unscented handsoap also works. And again, only a damp cloth, you don't want the leather to get wet. After you clean it, use a transparent leather cream. No colour. Ask the shop which product is best for the leather you have. If the leather is very dry now, the tone could get slightly darker, but not much. It will also get a richer, creamier look. Over time, as you polish the leather regularly, it will get a beautiful patina. Leather is like wood, it is influenced by whatever you do with it, and it will age beautifully if treated right.
Another silly question. If I'm trying to recreate the moulding using plaster of paris or similar, what would you suggest is best to get the gold/bronze colouring afterwards? Applied gold leaf or paint? Or is there something better? I'm planning on taking a mould using a moulding silicone. (Cited from: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/ormolu.80338/)
Applying gold leaf isn't easy, and I don't think the other "ormolu" decorations were made using gold leaf.
that's interesting. wikipedia says the below. Might be a bit beyond my skillset! Maybe some gold paint would be easier. Thing is plaster castings are a bit rubbish without a decompression chamber thing to suck out the bubbles. Maybe I can created a diy one... Ormolu (/ˈɔːrməluː/; from French or moulu, "ground/pounded gold") is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold–mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln leaving behind a gold coating but that can't be how mine were made anyway as mine are made of a wood pulp. I would guess they are either painted or gold leaf.
Very likely. I'll tag @kyratango for you, she is used to restoring items by thinking 'out of the box'. Exactly.
Rubn’buff gilding wax, exists in several shades. Once you’ve made a mold of the existing piece, you can use bi-component paste used as “cold welding” for repairs, no bubbles and cures very hard.
Kyratango could you shed a bit more light on cold welding I can't find it online for non-metallic products? Remember mine is a wood pulp thing. See attached one of my broken pieces. What is considered more "de rigeur" - to just create a replica for the missing/broken off section and glue it back into what is left of the original to make a whole, or just to create a whole new piece? I'm thinking modelling clay at the moment. The former option would probably be pretty fragile.
Hi all. An update and a new question for you all. In the end I went with the below approach. It's not a perfect result but it's not bad and definitely better than what I had before. - I made a mould of one of the original fittings using cornflour mixed with sanitary silicone (diy modelling clay) - I made some casts using the mould and some basic epoxy blue, with some fibreglass sheet inserted in the glue for strength - Then I decorated once cured using Rub n Buff - great stuff. I couldn't quite get a perfect colour match to the original but certainly not bad. Image attached. And of course now I've messed it all up - I wanted to clean the original leather top and I used a leather cleaner which said "this will take the leather back to its original finish". I figured that was what I wanted and unfortunately had no invisible area to test it on so just went for it. All the black from the "grain" and the embossing has been pulled from the leather and it's now bright orange. Oops. I figured all the black was dirt but now I'm not so sure. I'm not sure if the bright orange was the original colour or not but it's not the look I want. So my cry for help is two-fold. 1. Is there a way to add the black back? I was thinking black shoe polish. 2. There is embossing which I want to fill back in with a black colour, but there is also gold embossed inlay which I don't - see photos. I'm pretty sure I'm in trouble here but any suggestions as to how to proceed would be very welcome. Or should I just leave it bright orange?? So close yet so far...
Looks good, well done. I'm guessing the orangey tan colour was the original colour, so your cleaning product did a good job. It is just a shock when you are used to the old colour. You could try black or dark brown shoe polish. If things go wrong you have a great cleaning product to take it all off again. Put some shoe polish on a cloth, and rub it into the cloth so you don't see any polish blobs. Then lightly wipe the cloth over the top, skipping the bits you don't want to change. Good luck!
Thanks Any Jewelry - I think you may be right but it looks very odd. The problem I have with the shoe polish is that whilst it will go into the embossing and grain like I want, I have no way to stop it going into the gold inlay as well (which I don't want) as it is far too intricate to avoid the inlay whilst getting the grain around the inlay. I can only think of using some kind of mask but I'm comign up blank. Any ideas?
I think you can avoid that by rubbing a little shoe polish into the cloth first. That way you can wipe it gently over the surface, and it shouldn't go into the embossed parts, because the cloth doesn't reach lower parts. Essentially you'll be wiping a darkened cloth lightly over the leather. Don't rub, and make sure you don't see any shiny polish blobs or streaks on the cloth before you start wiping.
