ROCKING SWAN

As we have mentioned in our mission statement, we take pride in restoring sentimental furniture, …“preserving the warmth and feeling of the piece, preparing it for many more years of service” was so true for this restoration. As you can see it’s not a piece of furniture at all, but it was made from wood and it was very close to the heart of the client.

This child’s toy was literally handed to us in a paper bag; disassembled, broken, worn out and missing parts; but the client’s father had used this toy as a baby and she wanted it restored for her new baby to use in his memory.

The original emblem was still in tact on the back of the seat so we were able to trace its origin (a service we provide for the client as well as an aid for us in the restoration process).

The Mengal Toy Company made hundreds of these, along with other rocking animals in the 1920’s. They were made with a new wood product of the time called plywood. Another unique feature of these toys, since they were always in the hands of children, was the finish. They were painted with Milk Paint, a natural, not toxic coating that had been used for hundreds of years and could be traced back to the early native Indians.

We wanted to restore this toy, not so it looked new, but to a point where it would look like it had aged gracefully; so preserving as much of the original patina was a priority.

Years of outdoor use had taken its toll, especially the rocking surfaces; they had literally had been worn flat. The plywood laminations had not only separated, but were missing in some places and the runners were embedded with gravel.

The first step was to clean off years of dirt with a mild soap and all loose paint. Restoring the rocking surfaces required a two-part catalyst filler, wood laminate and glue. The missing parts where duplicated from pictures found on the Internet; then aged and distressed. The milk paint colors where matched at a local woodworking store. A “crackle” product that duplicates the natural aging of paint was added to the new components to blend them with the old. Then all areas where the paint was missing were painstakingly filled in and blended. A wash coat (thinned) of milk paint was applied over all surfaces to give uniformity to the colors. The final step was to apply several coats of clear shellac (another natural, non-toxic coating) over the entire piece to preserve it in time.

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