This wardrobe was in horrible shape. The pictures below don’t do any kind of justice at describing all that was wrong. Doors warped so severely that they had actually pulled the center drawer frame apart. The drawers wouldn’t work and didn’t fit and were either stuck or falling apart. The cabinet base was seriously inadequate and had to be completely rebuilt. The finish was a mess, and there were several missing or damaged brass pulls. This was a serious rebuild of a wardrobe that was so gorgeous and had so much mind-blowing hand carved detail that it was worth preserving. Also it was a sentimental piece, bought for the couple’s wedding. We had Doug Barr of Barr casting fabricate new pulls to match the old, and then we had to clean up the old ones and patina the new ones. This job is one of those that proved Buck’s old maxim about building and repairing being mutually beneficial skills. Buck did an amazing job at this – all the drawers and doors now work flawlessly and it has a beautiful buttery finish now that hides most of the damage but still shows that it’s an antique. He got a furniture historian in for a consult to make sure he was doing it in an appropriate way. I really doubt that there is anyone out there besides Buck who could have pulled this off.
