Minor Restoration of Georgian Marquetry Side Table
Although my business is mainly directed to contemporary bespoke work and teaching I also
occasionally take on some restoration. Working on this piece was a real pleasure, occasionally pieces
come to the workshop that are a little more than the run of the mill and this piece was one of them.
It’s a Georgian semi elliptical consol table in sycamore, satinwood and mahogany attributed to the
Irish maker William Moore who was active from around 1785-1815. The highly decorated top
features a central patera with bell flower points. The cross banded border features scrolling foliage
and a box wood and rosewood stringing. Those who have been on my marquetry will recognise the
central patera as we make a full elliptical version of this motif.
The table had been cut down at some time. The ebony stringing on the legs went right to the foot.
Usually it would stop short, also the taper seemed a little out of proportion, indicating that the legs
probably had spade feet at one time.
The problems identified with the table were:
A marked bow in the top from front to back. This was particularly evident because the table
had a glass cover protecting the marquetry surface. This was raised about 10mm above the
surface in places by the bow in the top.
The screws holding to top to the apron had pulled out from the top so that they no longer
held the top securely
Some of the sycamore radiating segments had started to lift due to degradation of the
original glue.
The rosewood and boxwood edge stringing had been lost in places and was detaching in
others.
Some of the cross banding was ridged.
The top bow could have been corrected by cutting saw kerfs about three quarters of the way
through underneath at about 40mm intervals, clamping the top to a flat surface then gluing fillets
into the kerfs to stabilise them. However this is quite radical restoration work which would probably
have reduced the value of the piece. It was therefore decided to look for “conservation rather than
restoration”. The top would be left as it is, the glass top being dispensed with. Erring on the side of
conservation also meant leaving the ridged cross banding. To correct this would have required
removing and replacing the rosewood and box wood stringing, so it was decided to let sleeping dogs
lie.