IS-094-BU

Art. IS-094-BU

Particular dresser of the nineteenth century from the Vicenza area, restored and transformed into a secretary desk. Inside the flap there are three small drawers aligned and towered by an open compartment. The master carpenter – through his transformation – has donated a new life and use to the previous furniture.

The dresser was built with solid walnut wood. The engraved threads – made out of maple and cherry wood and located on the front of both the drawers and the flap – were manually mounted. The polisher has succeeded in retrieving the original color thanks to the use of the shellac, making the natural grain to stand out.

Small curiosity: the shellac is produced by an insect of the coccidia family (laccifer lacca, coccus lacca or taccardia), who lives on a specific tree (Butea frondosa) of the Chinese or Indian area. The female insect secretes this resin during the digestion, giving the result of transparent yellow, or red, resin chips which are later processed in boiling water and successively dried. The best kind of shellac is the Indian one, also called “Angel”, while the Chinese one is called “T.N.”; the first one is obtained by scratching the surface, while the second one requires a deeper scratching. In order to be used, the shellac – which is sold in very thin chips – needs to be dissolved with alcohol, with a different percentage depending on the density desired.