I shipped the group to K & G Enterprises for restoration on November 10, 2002. The Traveling Magician (TM) arrived without any further damage. Below are photos of the restoration process and summary excerpts from the progress reports.
•
The seated man's head and arm/elbow against TM's table are secured.
• Seam lines on jackets are etched
(exception – the boy's jacket, lines drawn but no etching as yet).
• R-bar (copper) and pegs are secure on the
major base corner break.
• Initial removal of paint from some areas,
primarily TM's and boy's faces, and the hair on all three. This appears
to be LATEX paint that is being removed.
•
Bowknot on girl's shoe shows the kind of detail that had been globbed
over by the latex paint.
• The base after mold removal and cosmetics
to fill irregularities
• The girl's hair, the grain in the wood,
and much of the fringe was almost obliterated by the latex paint.
• The sign photo shows what you weren't that
sure was there, the ad for the show. This is nowhere near done and will
be rather time consuming and exacting to get the letters all cleaned up.
Next Steps: Cleanup and surface area preparation (light sanding and filling) and then the first coat of paint. With the first coat of paint everything that was missed will show up, which can then take care of. This will be followed by a second coat.
The paint is
very thin. Every surface anomaly that is missed doing the initial surface
prepping shows up with the first coat of paint. Also, one cannot avoid
grit on the surface of the piece in spots not matter how religiously you
try to get the piece cleaned up to paint.
There are always some spots that get missed the first time around. Once
the paint sets up after a few days, it will be time to set about taking
care of the anomalies, grit, and detail where needed. Then another thin
coat of paint is applied and the restorationist can see where they are
at that point.
