Fireplace Mantle

Hi all,

Recently purchased a 100year old mantle and was covered in many layers of paint, stripped that off and found this gem under all the layers.
Parts of the decorative areas and outer finish is damaged so looking to see if anyone has an idea on what the product used is and how it may have been applied?

Black area is painted on and think it maybe a sprit based stain? it smells of coal or charcoal...

Decorative areas are over timber and not inlay and similar texture to the black areas

Any help appreciated

Cheers Lemo

Attachment 537950

Hello lemo

Welcome aboard.

Possible that the finish is either shellac or lacquer with an aniline dye or lamp black stain. The smell is most likely a mix of smoke from fire and possibly cigarettes especially if there was any orange colour residue in the clean up rags or water. Smoke from even 20-30 years is almost always evident in fire surrounds.

Decorative areas look like a production Faux Marbling a decorative paint process very popular 100 years ago and still being done now.

Example below is lifted from US website:
Grand Illusion Decorative Painting, Inc
www.grandillusionnyc.com
Click pic for bigger view
Attachment 537951

The black could be repaired with White Shellac or Hard Shellac that has Lamp Black universal tint added to it. The universal tint is the stuff in the carrousel in the paint department at Bunnies, Mitre10 etc. If you ask nicely they might give you a small sample that will be enough to do the entire fire surround.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Cheers - Neil :U

PS Matching that marbled finish won't be easy and could be pretty expensive to get done. There are other decorative finishes that can be done. There are a few on U-Beaut Polishes in the Help With Finishes dropdown near the top of most pages.

Thanks so much for the info Neil, will look into best options...

That first "help with finishes" looks to be a very similar process, my wife's an art teacher so should be able to get the gesso and have a crack! Really only need to repair/touch up the top panel as the lower ones are still intact.

Very handy myself (tradesman) and renovating a 1930's Californian bungalow that was a builders show house so every room has a different aesthetic, from plain flat walls and ceilings to complete ornate plaster ceilings and wood panelling on the walls! So only thing that stumped me so far as to the process etc!

Thanks again Lemo