A renovation project in the US

Rarely an order takes more than six months from start to finish. This order took several years, the last panels have been shipped just a week ago. We have been asked to reproduce, the leather Seats, Backs and Skirting Boards for a set of chairs.

The embossing moulds have been laser cut to reproduce the original, detailed design.

These leathers were produced in the US probably at the end of the 19th century or the first quarter of the 20th century, we have no idea of the production area. To produce these leather panels they have used a bookbinders technique. Which means that the panels have not been embossed by the use of a embossing mould, in this case a set of smaller ornaments have separately been printed on the panel. The outside acanthus ornament has been applied by a roller as used on the leather desktops.

The challenge has been to reproduce identical panels using a different technique. John Buscemi well known consultant for historical Wallpaper and Fabrics, our US distributor and devoted partner in the business, made this order come trough, Thanks a lot John https://www.belfryhistoric.com

The First part of this order consisted in reproducing the embossed leather seats and backs for the chairs in a audience room. There were about 60 chairs, the only available archive material was one back in a fairly good condition.

This orignal back allowed us to have a new engraved plate, cut in resin by laser cutting technology. This basic engraved plate allowed us to produce a embossing mould and reproduce one leather back. This sample had to be submitted for approval. which they did.

From there it was easy, by adapting the dimensions to have the resin plate for the seats laser cut and embossing mould produced. We were now ready to reproduce the leather seats and backs that once ornate the audience chairs.

This project had two distinct parts. First Part: the Audience Chairs. Second Part: the more important chairs of the Councilors and the Governor. The audience chairs were technically made the way we make our leather panels, so there were fairly straight forward. To produce the Councilors and the Governors chair, a bookbinders technique was used, which is the opposite technique than the one we work with. In a nutshell it goes like this, bookbinders will print gilded ornaments on a coloured or painted background, while we apply paint or colour on a gilded background.

The difficulty to reproduce the Councilors Chairs or the Throne of the Governor you have imagine a transparent sheet of material on which you will blindprint the text of the Constitution than you colour the letters black and then you paint the surrounded background white, now you have the text of the Constitution. This is not very efficient system to have the text of the Constitution reproduced. Yet this is the way we had to work to get to the desired result. So we did.

To reproduce the Seat Back of the Councilors Chairs the upholsterer / restorer provided a drawing and a original panel to refer to.

The Councilors chairs and the Governors throne had skirts arround the seats. These boards were missing. The Upholsterer/Restorer provided a reconstructed rubbed drawing. Which along with the archive material, Seat Backs of the Governor's throne & Seat Back of the Councilors chairs were useful to reproduce accurate drawings.

The customer made the choise to re-produce panels in replacement for old and worn panels or panels that do no longer exist. This choise is made out of respect for the original arangement and quality of the room, one can't reproduce the same athmosphere using fabric or a uniform canvas like material. Because these chairs are to be used they have chosen a slightly aged finish. I would have aged them more, using some heavy patina and homemade tricks to make them look "fatigué" "tired or used" I have to admit though that unlike leathers that are used for walling, in this case the wear and tear will age them naturally.