antique chair restoration

The restoration of a Lancashire spindleback chair (Circa1740-1840) . These chairs can be attributed to different area’s of northern England depending on the number of spindles their arrangement and size. Due to the thin spindles of this chair it is thought to have been made in Lancashire. The joints of the chair had become loose due to the deterioration of the hide glue and the constant expansion and contraction of a chair living in a centrally heated house .The chair has been disassembled into all it’s component parts.Each part is labeled so there is no confusion on reassembly.In this case a full chair repair and restoration  is needed,involving complete dismantling ,the old glue has deteriorated and is first softened by re-hydrating with a thick mix of wallpaper paste.This can then be cleaned of with warm water.The right hand seat rail is missing ,a new rail is made in ash to match the left hand seat rail .It is common with Antique furniture for parts to be missing and it is important in furniture restoration to build a stock of old reclaimed woods ,to make these missing parts.For good furniture restoration and repair it is important to achieve a good match in colour and grain characteristics as many of the species used in furniture manufacture today have no relevance to Antique furniture.