This ornately veneered Queen Anne drop front desk had a multitude of cosmetic defects, and the brittle old finish was badly cracked and discolored in many areas. The degraded finish also obscured the natural warm tones of the underlying wood.

It is often best not to disturb an old finish and to try to preserve the piece in its ‘grungy’ condition, as it were, but in this case it was clear that dissolving the existing finish and refinishing in shellac was the right thing to do.