Conservator in Action: Antique Tilt Top Table

After over a decade in their home, the owner of this Biedermeier table decided it was time to have The Conservation Center’s Furniture Department examine it for treatment. This tilt-top table features walnut veneer, a detailed vine motif boarding the edge of the tabletop, and trefoil legs adorned with transfer decoration of swans, making it a beautiful example of the Biedermeier style. But naturally, after about 200 years, there were condition issues to address, and the owner determined it would be best to address them proactively before any further deterioration occurred.

A tilt-top table is just as it sounds: the top is hinged to a central pedestal to be positioned vertically when not in use and could be moved closer to the wall. It also meant the tabletop became a focal point. Tilt-top tables will often feature veneer patterns designed to highlight the natural beauty of the wood grain, like with the tabletop featured here. In this video, watch Senior Conservator of Furniture Stephen Ryan in action conserving this c.1820 antique tilt-top table.

Featuring Senior Conservator of Furniture Stephen Ryan as he treats the gaps, shrinkages splits and loose veneers on this tilt-top table, inpainting the losses to blend with the surrounding colors and patination.

The gloss finish on the top of the table showed areas of wear, scuffs and abrasion marks from many years of use. The tabletop was bowed, and the crossbanding was split and tented throughout.

One of the plinth blocks had detached from the base of one of the trefoil legs. During treatment, the plinth block was reattached, and the other two were re-secured as well.

Open groundwork split; the splits were filled during treatment with consolidants and solid wood where possible.

Open groundwork split; all loose and tented veneers were resecured before filling the groundwork splits.

Open groundwork split; after filling with consolidants, the conservator inpainted the area to mimic the surrounding finish, as seen in the treatment video above.

After cleaning to remove all oils, wax and contaminants from the surface, the final steps of treatment included building up the finish to a full pore and leveling with the existing surface before adding a final protective layer of wax.

AFTER TREATMENT This table was once featured in “Biedermeier” by Angus Wilkie. The author notes “It is possible that tis table is by [Georg] Hiltl, since it displays unusual attention to the painted detail [in the swans].” — AFTER TREATMENT
This table was once featured in “*Biedermeier”* by Angus Wilkie. The author notes “It is possible that tis table is by [Georg] Hiltl, since it displays unusual attention to the painted detail [in the swans].”

The functional aspects of the table were addressed during treatment, including repairing the latch strike, ensuring that the table could continue to be used as intended when it was constructed roughly 200 years ago. The Center’s conservators are grateful for the privilege to treat lovely items such as this table, and we are thankful for our clients as well, who, like this table’s owner shared, “trusts The Conservation Center to always do exemplary restoration and conservation work.”

…Wondering what Biedermeier means?

From Apartment Therapy:“The name “Biedermeier” was originally meant as a mocking one. Two writers, Adolf Kussmaul and Ludwig Eichrodt, created a character they called “Gottlieb Biedermeier”, under whose name they published many satirical poems. Biedermeier was comfortably middle-class, a good citizen and without many intellectual ambitions—exactly the sort of person Kussmaul and Eichrodt found ridiculous. The same elites who found the new bourgeois absurd apparently also found their furniture a bit silly, so they applied the name to the style, and it stuck. Ironically, Gottlieb has been forgotten, while Biedermeier is a perennially loved style of furniture....” — From Apartment Therapy:
“The name “Biedermeier” was originally meant as a mocking one. Two writers, Adolf Kussmaul and Ludwig Eichrodt, created a character they called “Gottlieb Biedermeier”, under whose name they published many satirical poems. Biedermeier was comfortably middle-class, a good citizen and without many intellectual ambitions—exactly the sort of person Kussmaul and Eichrodt found ridiculous. The same elites who found the new bourgeois absurd apparently also found their furniture a bit silly, so they applied the name to the style, and it stuck. Ironically, Gottlieb has been forgotten, while Biedermeier is a perennially loved style of furniture....”

Carissa Tonner