Wooden Cabinet

Cabinet before treatment. The small cabinet is made from a dark stained wood, has decorative features along the top and is missing its doors.
Cabinet Before Treatment.

Cultural History

Not much is known about the history of this object except it was bought in France in 2022. There have been suggestions of it being a spice cabinet.

Condition Before Treatment

The condition of the cabinet was very poor before treatment. With evidence of historic pest infestation eating the wood and leaving flight holes in the structure. The surface was coated in a layer of dirt, accumulated through poor storage conditions with plenty of spiderwebs. The cabinet was in 6 pieces, 2 full doors, 1 half door, 2 rails(top and bottom), 1 main body.

Image of one of the missing doors. It is a dark stained wood and has two circular decorative motifs.
Half of the other missing door. The missing half has been lost.
(Left) Original door with fabric backing. (Right) Half of door.

Treatment

Cleaning

Initial dry cleaning was undertaken using erasers and a museum vacuum cleaner (This is a small vacuum cleaner which has less pressure than the normal ones to not damage objects) to remove loose particles of dirt. The entire object was then cleaned using wet swabs to remove the residual soiling stuck to the surface. Two loose top finials were removed for later moulding.

Annabelle pictured cleaning the wood using a cotton swab.
Swab cleaning of the cabinet to remove the ingrained dirt.
Cabinet before cleaning. The wood appears darker and dusty.
Cabinet after cleaning. The wood appears brighter. The doors are still not attached to the front.
(Left) Cabinet Before Cleaning, (Right) Cabinet After Cleaning.

Removal of nails

Once clean a Dremel was used to remove the iron nails from the doors and rails (which had been retained, being careful not to damage the original wood.

Consolidation of structure

Examination of the object during cleaning revealed previously hidden wood splits, these were glued closed using Fish Glue to provide strength and stability, Fish Glue was used as it was in keeping with the history of the cabinet.

Fills

Historic damage to the object were mended using wood fills. These fills were shaped to fit in the areas of loss and glued together using Fish Glue. These fills were made to the loss to the top and bottom rails.

Recreating lost decoration

Measurements were taken from several decorative elements to potentially make replacements for missing pieces. Some test replacements have also been made out of epoxy as a test to find the most appropriate way of recreating the lost decoration. 

Recreating missing doors

In order to replace the missing door and repair the half door, oak was sourced and cut to size.

Two pieces of oak wood cut with two large holes. These will be made into replacement doors.
Oak replacement doors.

This treatment is ongoing. To be updated…

Reflection of by the Conservator

This object was my first time working on a wood object and woodworking in general. I have learned several wood working techniques: sawing, planning and chiselling. I have learned how to plan a large project with many treatment steps needed which required good time management to finish. 

Headshot of Annabelle. She is a white female with a black top and a light blue jacket. She has middle length brown hair and is smiling for the photo. The background is black.

This object was treated by Annabelle. Click on her profile to learn more about her.