The clients called with a unique dilemma. They were enamored with a pair of Art Nouveau period Armchairs they had seen at the Macklowe Galleries New York City. Based upon photographs of the armchair, they asked if I would be able to reproduce these antique chairs and create a Dining Room set for their new home in Weston, MA. I assured them that they could go ahead with their purchase of the antiques, and that once I had the chair we would be able to replicate them, and design a table that complemented the chairs.
The antique chairs were purchased and analyzed, and the reproduction began. First we noticed that the antiques had suffered several breaks during their remarkable lifetimes and had metal and wood pins and braces on the undersides. Also, the finish on the antique chairs showed all the ingenuity of modern technology in glossing over these previous repairs. The originals had been made of pear wood, which was no longer commercially available in quantity and quality to create the matching pieces. We moved to a cherry wood as substitute, with the promise to match the color of the originals, and other period Art Nouveau pieces that the clients had collected in Paris.
The carving, while challenging, proved to be the easy part. The finish was a very delicate yet deliberate sequence of steps, requiring many test samples and layers of color and tint added and removed. Finally, we succeeded in a very subtle blend which matched the originals.
The upholstery took weeks longer than promised as well, but the day came when we were able to deliver the dining room to "ecstatic" clients in Weston. I was ecstatic to have pulled this off as well.
