Vernis Martin Painted Curio Cabinet Restoration

Ok, not exactly a restoration more a refresh. I have this Vernis Martin painted cabinet that was inexpensive French decor for the masses I guess (IKEA of the late 19th century?) and want to refresh the ormolu a lot of it has come off over the years and all of it is deeply tarnished, fortunately I still have most of those ormolu pieces that fell off and all the glass is in good condition.

having never taken on this project I’m wondering the best way to accomplish this, should I chemically strip the ormolu and buff it, polish with creams… or don’t even start or you’ll be sorry?

Assuming the word is go for it, where the ormolu secures the glass would it be better to remove all the ormolu and glass or work my way around the glass one piece at a time removing and replacing as I go keeping the glass in place. The latter sounds the safest route to me.

 

This one is likely a bit newer, this looks the same style and is listed as mid 20th century if accurate?

 

The majority of vintage vitrines I have sold were from Italy - newer ones coming in from Egypt. The mounts are likely not ormolu if vintage. Just patinated metal.

 

I took a buffing wheel to a piece from this one it doesn’t look painted, I buffed the back side top pretty aggressively.

so this would not be vintage and likely made in Egypt?

 

Here is the front side of that same fitting

 

I think I would do some touch-ups and call it a day. Can't see how you will get satisfactory results without a tremendous amount of effort. Piece is not worth it IMHO. If you do not like how it looks, sell it and buy something you do like.

 

Brad I think your right I was going to sell it back in the 1980’s there was an antique dealer in town “Corinthian” (I worked for them while in high school a little) was the name of the shop I think the owners names were Vern and Gene, we did a lot of business with them. They told me it needed to have all the metal refinished in order to sell it the obvious reason it would take them a lot of time to get it ready for sale.

looking at it the metal should come off fairly easy and I have the tools to do the job. Last year I refinished my dads old drafting table for my wife to use as her art bench designing jewelry and practicing calligraphy, I might give it a go one small piece at a time but I can easily see that’s a decision I could soon regret, maybe try using my flex shaft tool and small wheels polishing in place to reveal polished highlights.

 

I’m going to go for it my concern it would be difficult to get the tarnish off without great effort, but I don’t think it will be all that hard with the right compound. The other day I was using a little piece of white rouge, a fine soft compound for plastics and. It worked but took a while so I ordered new compound blocks and wheels and that is all the difference in the world. Starting with Tripoli it cuts quickly and will be better looking slightly more subdued polish these to pieces took around 4 minutes if all of the pieces were disabled it could be polished in an hour or two. I’ve gone slow on this first one deciding how much tarnish I want to remain this one would work but I think I’ll go just a bit more and do it all the same. Pulling out the brass brads shouldn’t be a problem but with care will add another hour or two, but I plan to work one piece at a time so shouldn’t be that big and if it gets tedious I’ll just take a break till the next day.

 

I am doing this last update until I’m finished, starting with the largest and most delicate, I need to control the amount of pressure and be aware of catching fragile areas, but should be no problem if I’m careful.