Dallas Museum of Art

It is rewarding to conserve furniture for individual clients, to return to the collections after years and see them again, still enduring. But it is especially satisfying to restore important pieces for museums and the public sector, where all can view your work and you can share it with the public.

My first project for the Dallas Museum of Art was the 19th century walnut sideboard which holds some of the silver collection in the American wing. I was able to use new methods acquired in a seminar with Richard Wolbers from the Winterthur Museum to successfully remove a varnish coating with enzymes, revealing the undamaged original shellac coating underneath.

The most important project is the Rosedown bed, highlight of the American Wing, considered the best example of Gothic American furniture made in the US in the 19th century. A number of assorted pieces, the Rolffs desk, the Loos elephant table, the Vanderbilt sideboard, the Sloane American deco piece are some of which I am equally proud to have worked on. The Dallas Museum of Art was the first art museum I ever visited, and is still responsible for my continued inspiration and education.