This stunning 19th-century armchair is, unusually, made of three different kinds of timber: elm, beech and yew. Elm was traditionally used for the seats, while beech, heavy and dense, was used to turn the legs and spindles. Here, the yew, which provides good elasticity for curved pieces, was used for the curved back and the curved piece attached to the legs.
The customer brought it to us with a broken rear leg: the tenons had snapped off at the socket.
To repair this, we needed to turn a new leg and spindle, stain them to match the original hue, and finish them with a similar lacquer.
Once turned, the pieces are fitted to the chair after we drilled out the remains of the broken tenons: a perfect fit!
We then matched the colouring and lacquered it. Can you tell which is the new leg?
And it’s as if nothing ever happened!
