Posted 13 years ago
Tinkerton
(3 items)
I bought this for $50 a few weeks back. The mirror frame was broken and the old finish was awful--black, alligatored, damaged beyond hope. I was flabbergasted when I started removing the old varnish and saw this gorgeous wood underneath! There's a plate on the back that says W.B. Moses and Sons, Washington DC, and the mirror was stamped with the date 1903 on the back. The pulls were all missing so I bought the ones you see from a place that sells authentic period reproduction hardware--I hope I chose wisely relatively plain brass Victorian era pulls. If anybody has any other information about this piece, or about similar ones, I'd be very interested! For one thing, I'd like to know what this is properly called--is it a chest of drawers, a bureau, or what? Thank you for looking!
Wow! Beautiful!! Great job.
Beautiful job!
I've heard these dressers referred to as a high-boy.
awesome!!
Hi Tinkerton. What a great find! You did a beautiful job restoring it. I would love to stumble upon one of these some day.
Fantastic!
$50! I need you as my "pilot-fish" when searching! Do you work by the hour, salary or commission?
I have my great grandfathers dresser and mirror . Similiar to yours it need a little love but I wouldn't even know what to do it's w b Moses number 126 any helpful advice
I'm no expert, but what I did was I used a product like Formby's Furniture Refinisher, you don't have to get that brand, other companies make similar products cheaper, and take off the old dirty finish. Just follow the directions on the package. I needed a putty knife to scrape this thing clean, but I found a washstand recently that only needed a light going over with the refinisher and steel wool, followed by a few coats of wax, so it can be easy or difficult! Depending on what you find underneath, lightly sand or use steel wool to smooth it out, then you should be ready to apply your new finish. I used Tung Oil, but later found out that's not a great idea because it causes the wood to turn really dark. I let that dry, then applied old fashioned furniture wax, I used Minwax Paste Finishing Wax, and rubbed and buffed until I was satisfied with the appearance. Again, I am not an expert and this might not be the best advice, but it's what I did. Hope this helps!