Featured Need help dating carved ivory casket/box

Ok, @raven19189 - Thank you (and @Figtree3) again for asking, as it made me knuckle down and carry on cleaning.

As I don't have clamps or equipment to square it up, it remains unglued. Those chunky dovetails are what's keeping it vertical. I discovered the hinged back panels are slightly bowed, complicating matters. Needs professional attention.

I wanted to avoid changing the surfaces of that top split, and since I don't have 30x vision or clamps to hold tiny pieces firmly, I didn't take glue removal to the nth degree. I dissolved or pulled off as much as I could. The natural ivory color against the whitewash makes the top split appear worse than it is. Again, it's not glued, just laying there.

I didn't try to clean the panels, just removed as much rust as I could. I used @Hollyblue 's technique... Not clinically rust-free, but much better. The waxy finish definitely helped.

Really too bad about the the vandalism to the front edge
1.

2. I reversed the top, so the split is at the back.


3.


4. It looks wonky, but it's in a very flexible state :O


5.


6.


I thought the top was two layers plus a veneer, which would have made putting it back together really tricky. Thankfully, it's all one piece, hand routed to slide into the top panel grooves. I didn't even try to re-glue any of the weird shims and repairs they had made. It slides in the way it slides in.
7.


It's a little hard to see, but the straight edge of a mylar sleeve shows warping. Because of the curvature, it no longer matches up front to back perfectly. You can also see that mismatch on images 2, 3 and 6.
8.


There you have it! I wanted to contact the people I mentioned, and it's much better that it's a least standing. So grateful it was all hide glue, which is easy to dissolve

BUMP

 

This looks very good. Much better than it was! Thanks for the update.

 

I'm with fig, looks so much better, thanks for posting the new photos

 

Tagged you wrong, @808 raver

 

Thanks for the update, wow it looks a lot better than it did before. I restore nearly every antique I buy to a greater or lesser degree, I know how you feel when you have started a restoration project and realise it's beyond your skill set, I do it all the time but I am yet to have failed completely. If this was mine I would be tempted to complete the job (unless you know a really good/cheap restorer) all it needs is gluing back together, I know it's no easy task but plenty of thought and a few dry runs should allow you to foresee any future problems. Even if you know a good restorer they are unlikely to have worked on a box like this. I had a restoration project on a Khatam cabinet where the fall front had broken in half https://www.antiquers.com/threads/t...here-in-the-world-19-18thc.17348/#post-238692, the break wasn't clean and it wouldn't fit back together neatly because the wood fibres were all twisted, to compound the problem the micro mosaics stood further up making gluing difficult, for a long time I left it thinking I would never be able to use it as it should be used because the restoration costs would be very high but one day I found the courage and took the plunge, it all worked out very well and now the front can be used as it should.