Featured Heavenly glove box - shall I varnish it?

Hi all,

not sure where should this box go, I just received it today and was astonished by its beauty! Guess its veneer could be re-sanded to remove stains or damage, but it's still so pretty, I'm thinking of varnishing it to protect the veneer, just get a bit paranoid about it getting damaged, what do you think?

 

The tea caddy there has clearly been restored and revarnished and is there for comparison

 

I would leave it alone, other than putting something inside to replace the old liner. I would do a fabric, or fabric wrapped, piece of mat board.

 

Good idea! And you just remind me I could do a fabric cover to protect the wood surface wichout painting or glueing anything as well

 

The wood has survived pretty well so far so don't stress too much!

 

Normally with any Victorian box I would recommend leaving it unless it's really bad but in this case I think someone has already sanded it, it would have had french polish on it and that doesn't seem present anymore. This is just my view, I think antiques should look antique, I see new world Youtubers (American, Canadian) strip and sand antiques then refinish them with modern finishes from a spray gun, I couldn't imagine European restorers doing this, It would remove all value unless it's the type of antique that can't be remade today. An antique should have dirt, knocks, oxidation of the wood, patina, colour, dirt in the corners, years of wax polish that give it huge depth. The art of restoration is to bring back from looking tired without destroying what made it desirable in the first place. To make an antique look brand new doesn't make sense to me. (rant over) I would recommend giving it many coats of French polish with a soft brush (these dry very quickly) then going over with very fine wire wool to take the shine off, then a coat of wax polish, this will make it look like it did originally. It will take a few days to dry and go hard before you can go over with wire wool. BTW this finish is not only traditional but once used you will never use another finish again, it's fantastic. I mix my own but it's easy and cheap to buy, here is a link of what to buy, there is also a video but you don't need to do all of those steps to get a good finish. https://priorypolishes.co.uk/product/liberon-special-pale-french-polish/

 

wow thanks for your information that's amazing, let's see if I can learn how to do it on youtube, otherwise I might find someone professional to do one day!

 

It's really not difficult at all and defiantly no need to pay someone to do it. French polish is so thin that it's almost impossible to mess it up and even if you did it takes a few mins to take it off with wire wool. If you were re-French polishing a black grand piano then I would say get a professional to do it but this is just a small box and if you try it and it works out then every antique you buy you can redo it yourself.

 

haha okay that's encouraging!

 

Hi if you don't mind me asking a bit more-I've seen some of the guides which include a sealer before applying first layer of french polish, while other guides or videos don't mention this sealer, is it necessary for french polishing please?

 

No sealer required, French polish is a sealer, in a reasonably warm place the first coat of French polish will dry in a 5 minutes then it's sealed, all the coats after that will dry in 2 minutes or less because they are sitting on top of a already dry coat. The term "French polishing" really means going over a grain filled super flat surface with a rubber (fad) that puts a very thin coat on layer after layer (this dries in a few seconds) a few drops of oil is used to prevent it grabbing but you are not trying to "French polish" (although a good thing to learn) You are just giving a few coats of lacquer, keep the coats thin and when you are happy with the shine leave it at least 12hrs then with very fine wire wool (000) very lightly go over the whole box, all you are doing is removing the high gloss that French polish has, this is called antiquing, if you don't do this step it just looks wrong, too shiny. Then give it a wax polish. This youtuber is who I learnt from, please don't be put off by the poor video quality in 20 mins of video he covers all you need to know, lol he ended up making many TV appearances.
Part 1
Part 2

 

Thank you so much! I've bought everything and all shipped out today, hopefully I'll update the result once it's done

 

Cool, if I can convert 1 person to antique restoration then many antiques will be saved. TBH it's so easy and such a good and profitable thing to do I don't know why there aren't more restorers around. The guy in the videos has so many good videos on restoration he is well worth learning from, he has learnt his trade from generations and knows how to do it well without ruining the pieces he works on, he is the only youtuber I would say is worth watching. BTW his ethos is also saving antiques/history from the skip.

 

Indeed, I'll keep an eye on more boxes on ebay that could be revived with my new knowledge!

 

Knowing what can be restored is half the battle, I've got at least 10 boxes that my over ambitious younger self thought "that will be easy" lol. If you need any advice I'm happy to help if I can.

 

Haha okay I'm grateful! Nothing wrong with buying, you need to have it otherwise there's nothing to start with

 

That original lining is lovely, I should probably do a similar one! I got my tea caddy (in the first pic) from this seller too His channel is so enjoyable to watch as well

 

Btw I've done my shellac finish three days ago and how long do you think I should wait before I wire wool it? Any signs to look for suggesting it's ready for next stage?

 

Also from his channel, this one is almost identical!