124mc14-AL-2017_Turin, Royal Palace, Writing desk from the center, inv. 2300

Facilitated description: 

 

The center desk is a table with drawers with an inlay decoration, that is made with different types of wood.
The desk was built in 1770.
The desk is kept at the Royal Palace of Turin.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the desk in 2017.
The restorers have placed the desk in an anoxic chamber, a chamber without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that feed on wood.
They cleaned the table of dust.
They glued the detached wooden parts with glue injections.
They filled the missing wooden parts with similar wooden tiles. They colored the wooden tiles on the back to make recognizable the parts added with the restoration.
They covered the small holes with putty (plaster and glue layer).
They painted the desk to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration carried out on the occasion of the exhibition on display Genius and mestria. Furniture and cabinetmakers at the Savoy court between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Reggia di Venaria, Sala delle Arti 17 March - 15 July 2018). 

Restoration

The surgery began with an anoxic chamber treatment over a period of three weeks and the application of permethrin. This was followed by the differentiated cleaning of the work: on undecorated surfaces, atmospheric particulate deposits were removed with vacuum cleaner and wishab rubbers, while on decorated surfaces and metal surfaces, chemical cleaning was carried out. The raised inlay tiles were made to adhere to the support with punctual injections of vinyl glue and subjected to pressure by means of springs and plating tips. Subsequently, the missing wooden tiles with the same wooden species were integrated, then chromatically intoned with watercolor colors. To make the integrated tiles easily recognizable, a substance has been applied on the back that makes them radiopaque and recognizable by means of X-ray analysis. For the small gaps, plastering composed of microcrystalline wax mixed with pigments has been performed. Finally, a protective varnish was applied. 

 

Bibliography

F. Gualano, Sheet 30, in Genius and mestria. Furniture and cabinetmakers at the Savoy court between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (catalogue), edited by S. De Blasi, Turin, Allemandi, 2018, pp. 242.