Auction pieces for cleaning and restoration

The first picture below shows a piano stool – a small demonstration piece of furniture for one of Le Manoir’s restoration and reupholstering courses. Course goers will be given the opportunity to work on a piece with their tutor – to remove all of the old tacks, webbing and hessian and use a magic cleaning formula to clean and restore the wood before applying wax to protect and nourish it. That’s before they start the fun work of re-upholstery!

The second picture – showing a balloon-back chair – will get a similar treatment.

The third picture shows a round card table. The legs are in excellent condition and I really like the shape of the piece but the table top needs restoring. When it’s finished it will go by the window in The Study at Le Manoir Saint Gervais along with two high-back chairs in crushed green/grey velvet. SCH

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This week’s auction find: brass fender

The dining room at Le Manoir has a large stone fireplace which is lovely but needs something to finish it off at floor level. At this week’s auction I found the perfect fender in brass that I hope will fit the space nicely. It cost £10, plus commission. If it doesn’t fit it can go in the barn! SCH

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An amazing find: Singer sewing machine

I found a vintage Singer sewing machine in this week’s auction which is in lovely condition and even has the original Singer service label on the handle. It is a manual machine so will only really be practical to use when doing small projects or when you don’t really want to use electricity (e.g. sewing over pins when gathering sleeves, etc.) but I think it will look great in the craft workshop on a shelf. I’ve since discovered that my Mum has two additional machines which are gathering dust so they may also find their way to The Little Grange. SCH

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