Project description
I have inherited a large antique floor-standing world globe — roughly 16 inches in diameter, mounted on its original three-legged wooden tripod base with a curved wooden meridian ring — and it badly needs a careful hands-on restorer, not a generic furniture shop.
The paper gore map surface (the printed paper segments glued over the plaster sphere) has several lifting seams near the equator band, two torn gores in the southern hemisphere region, and a heavy layer of yellowed varnish that has gone cloudy and cracked in a crazing pattern. I need someone who can consolidate the lifting paper, in-fill the losses with tone-matched archival paper, and either carefully clean or fully strip and re-varnish the surface so the printed place names stay legible and the colour balance across oceans and continents looks even.
The wooden meridian ring (the graduated arc the sphere pivots inside) is loose at one bracket and the degree markings have worn away in patches, so re-securing the ring and touching up the engraved scale is part of the job. The rotating axis has a metal pin at each pole; the sphere currently wobbles and squeaks when spun, so the bearing needs to be cleaned, re-lubricated or re-bushed so it turns smoothly and sits level again.
The tripod floor stand itself is solid mahogany-toned wood but the finish is scuffed, one leg has a hairline split near the foot, and the brass compass ring set into the horizon band is tarnished and missing a screw. I would like the base refinished to match the original tone, the split leg stabilized and glued rather than replaced, and the compass ring cleaned and reseated.
Please send examples of similar globe or sphere restoration work, describe your approach to paper gore in-filling and varnish removal, and give a realistic timeline. The globe stays fully assembled at my address for the full job — this is not a mail-in restoration.
The paper gore map surface (the printed paper segments glued over the plaster sphere) has several lifting seams near the equator band, two torn gores in the southern hemisphere region, and a heavy layer of yellowed varnish that has gone cloudy and cracked in a crazing pattern. I need someone who can consolidate the lifting paper, in-fill the losses with tone-matched archival paper, and either carefully clean or fully strip and re-varnish the surface so the printed place names stay legible and the colour balance across oceans and continents looks even.
The wooden meridian ring (the graduated arc the sphere pivots inside) is loose at one bracket and the degree markings have worn away in patches, so re-securing the ring and touching up the engraved scale is part of the job. The rotating axis has a metal pin at each pole; the sphere currently wobbles and squeaks when spun, so the bearing needs to be cleaned, re-lubricated or re-bushed so it turns smoothly and sits level again.
The tripod floor stand itself is solid mahogany-toned wood but the finish is scuffed, one leg has a hairline split near the foot, and the brass compass ring set into the horizon band is tarnished and missing a screw. I would like the base refinished to match the original tone, the split leg stabilized and glued rather than replaced, and the compass ring cleaned and reseated.
Please send examples of similar globe or sphere restoration work, describe your approach to paper gore in-filling and varnish removal, and give a realistic timeline. The globe stays fully assembled at my address for the full job — this is not a mail-in restoration.
Other / Miscellaneous Cash, Bank transfer
