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Message:: [QUOTE="808 raver, post: 9761359, member: 4654"]"I do know what shellac is" it would seem you don't, all through this thread you have mixed up the product "varnish" with "shellac" ......." It looks like an old shellac coating" "I have seen instances of this type of shellac deterioration on interior woodwork (doors, window frames, baseboards, etc.) before - definitely not high end "French polish" pieces of furniture. It was a simple mixture of lac dissolved in alcohol, painted on as a varnish" "The shellac finish on household woodwork was a simpler process. As noted in the article I linked to, the deteriorated coatings remain soluble in alcohol, indicating this was the original solvent. Shellac was a very common varnish before the development of synthetic resins. I have also seen similar crazing/alligatoring on scientific instruments where tinted shellac was often used as a lacquer coating" It is only now you use the word varnish as a product "Shellac knotting varnish" "Cabinetmakers’ varnish" Varnish is different than French polish, lacquer and shellac, some recipes for varnish do include shellac but that doesn't make them French polish, lacquer or shellac. It would seem like my 15 years of working with shellac did come in handy and oh BTW the pieces I work on that have a shellac finish are up to 200 years old and never result in this type of crazing.[/QUOTE]