Pine walls

Marysa de Veer <marysa [at] deveer__co__uk> writes

>I have an old post office circa 1914.  The front room has original
>pine cladding covering all walls and the ceiling.  I have stripped
>back the layers of paint on the pine. Does anyone have any
>suggestions as to what to do next--wax, varnish?

The analyses of the surface-layers you (should) have made before
stripping the wood will give an indication of the possible original
surface treatment. Assuming you didn't wash away a nice early
English art-deco painting hidden under over-paintings and the
original intention was to show the bare-grain wood you have several
options. The conservation approach: To prevent the pine cladding
covering for further degradation you don't have to do anything! Just
look after the environmental circumstances and it will at least
survive you.  The restauration approach: Try to reconstruct the
original surface and appearance. For this you have many options when
you are not bound to any analyses of the original surface. I can
only refer to a huge interior job we carried out in the early 90th.
Dealing with the interior of "De beurs van Berlage" in Amsterdam
(delivery-date 1903), analyses showed only wax finishes on the used
oak (with an extremely high paraffin percentage) and a dammar
varnish on the pine.

The just-look-nice approach: Use any easy to wash away surface
treatment like resin or wax/resin mixture. I'm not that fond of
applying "only wax" treatments on historical objects because it is
so hard to remove when necessary.

Bart Greebe
Bruijs meubel- en interieurrestauratie
Tingietersweg 91
2031 ER Haarlem


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:11
                  Distributed: Tuesday, July 15, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-17-11-010
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