Maintain the value of your antique furniture!

Bentley & Clive provide a restoration service for antique furniture including stain removal and re-finishing, patching or renewal of veneers, structural repairs, copying and replacement of missing parts including mouldings, carvings, turned elements and metal fittings.

All this work is done by craftsmen trained to an approved BAFRA standard. We provide a full restoration report detailing the work done and the methods used to comply with BAFRA standards as required. This is important to maintain the value of antique pieces. Many antique pieces are devalued by being repaired using methods and materials that are not appropriate to the age of the piece.

Early Georgian Walnut Chest-on-Chest
Restoration involved the use of re-claimed antique walnut to replace missing mouldings and veneer on this important piece. All the mouldings were hand-carved on the cross grain using a scratch-stock as the originals would have been done. Antique keys were sourced to work with the existing locks as the originals had been lost.

19th Century French Mahogany Wall Cabinet
Restoration involved the use of antique re-claimed mahogany to re-carve all but four of the pediment ‘C’ scrolls, and one of the egg and dart mouldings to the base. The interior had been lined from the beginning, but this lining had been replaced during the latter half of the 20th century with a red vinyl. This was removed and replaced with a velvet bordered with braid.

Sheraton Period Late 18th Century Burr Maple Sewing Box on Stand
The stand had a broken front leg due to an earlier ‘repair’ to the tenon joint, which had split the tenon. This entailed the removal of all the veneers surrounding the broken joint, restoring the joint, and then replacing the veneers

Early Victorian Balloon-Back Armchair
This chair involved both restoration and upholstery as several of the joints were loose and needed re-gluing and stripping the upholstery revealed woodworm in the back seat rail.

Comb-back Fruit-wood Fireside Chair
These lovely chairs often suffer from loose arm and leg joints due to natural wear in the spigots which make up the joints. Frequently, these are ‘bodge’ repaired with a screw driven into the spigot to hold it tight. This inevitably splits the spigot sooner or later. This chair had two loose legs, one of which needed a new spigot inserted, and re-gluing of one arm.