Restoration of an American Cutler roll top desk (more media to come)
I’d forgotten how much of a monumental task it took to restore an American Cutler roll top desk.
Hadn’t restored one myself since the early 90s, when they were selling between $5,000 – $9,000, remarkable!
We restored this for a customer I’ve been doing business with for a many years. I helped re furnish and re style her Mothers room at Mecwacare Malvern, great memories ✨
Sadly I didn’t take any before photos, just a few parts of. You’ll notice the thick dark varnished surface. Took three coats of paint stripper!!!
The piece needed a lot of repairing and re gluing. Also the stripper dissolved what was left of the fabric holding the roll top together. Anyway after all the work, Eddie and I are very satisfied with the end result.
This desk was dated 1914. Started out its life in her family and has been handed down from great grandfather, grandfather to father, now to her son, who will enjoy this beauty for the rest of his life.
One thing about roll top desks, they hold a lot of documents and files. Very functional. They also have a very clever locking system (that we also had to repair) once locked, quite impossible to enter, now will last another 100 years…
Very happy customers ✨