It has been a while since I last posted anything to this blog, so I thought I’d detail a restoration piece I am working on for a client.

When the instrument was received my client was shocked at the state of the piece. It had arrived full of glass, the window to the location sheet shattered into thousands of pieces, and the cabinet was bursting at the joints. The leather upholstery was decayed, dirty, scratched and torn. The cabinet hardware was corroded and worn.

This de la Warr analyser was sent to me for repair. I have restored my own analyser which is a much later model, so I was already familiar with the format.

The bulk of this project is restoring the cabinet which is no mean feat. To date I have disassembled the lid, stripped back the old leather, sanded the woodwork and rejoined the pieces. The quality of the original woodwork is very poor, which is why the instrument suffered some damage in the first place. I done my best to strengthen the joints and prep the wood for the new hard wearing Tolex.

Here is the cabinet. Unfortunately you can’t easily make out the broken joints from this angle.