Furniture
2CRC is working on any kind of furniture: armchairs, gilt leather seats, bench, footrest, etc.
Upholstery conservation
2CRC is also working on leather parts from vehicles, carriages and sedan chairs.
Restauration des garnitures en cuir
Carriages
With collaborators in other specialties, we often work on vehicles. Work can be done on site or in workshop because 2CRC has a carriage door to access.
Sedan chair
Sedan chairs always include leather parts: in general, the roof is made of leather but also the interior floor and/or the sides. We do the cleaning, the restoration of the tears and seams.
Documentation
Objects are systematically photographed before, during and after conservation. Each object is returned with a complete documentation explaining in detail the techniques employed and the materials used.
Seats from the national museum of the castle of Pau (South west of France)
A series of seats from the grand salon in the Castle of Pau has been restored in our workshop. Dating from the mid 19th century, these upholsteries are adorned with gold leafs. Worn out, especially on the base and the arms, the leather is kept in place and restored by insertion of backings, infillings and retouching. The aim is to keep the integrity of the seats without removing (or replacing) the original upholstery.
Conservation of a Sedan chair kept at the Bonaparte House in Ajaccio (Corsica)
The Sedan chair is supposed to have been used by Laetitia Bonaparte. It was restored on site, in the museum during the opening hours.
The chair was in very bad condition, very dirty and dusty. It has been very much restored in the past : different types of leather patches have been used. New tears and cracks had appeared. The wooden carved decoration was also very degraded and lost.
In fact, in the past, some elements of the chair had been regularly offered as presents to important visitor guests… That would explain the condition of the chair today.
Cleaning, consolidation, reshaping and marking of the chair have been done.
Dating : end of the 18th century.
Conservation of a choir bench kept in a church in Cherré (Sarthe).
This bench is a « recent » creation (XIX-XXth century ?) which integrates older pieces in its conception. For example, the gilt leathers used as upholstery can be dated from the 18th century.
This type of reuse is quite common. In this case, eight leather panels have been re-stitched together to form the seat, the back and two sides.
The original sizes of the panels are lost. They have been cut and associated with natural laced leather strips. The entire surfaces have been glued to a rough textile before being attached with nails.
Because the bench consists of different types of materials, it was necessary to restore as well the wooden parts and to undertake the insects disinfestation.
For the leather, the conservation process was as less interventionist as possible. The old assemblage had to be kept in place.
Dating : first half of the 18th century for the gilt leather. Netherlands.
