Black Lacquer Partners Desk

The four of us at T&G purchased this reproduction partners desk late last year. The goal was to plate all the metal hardware in gold, and piano black lacquer the desk. We have preformed this procedure twice before on customers desks, so we had an idea of sell price, the cost and time involved. This desk was exceptional because all the brass hardware was detailed to the highest caliber. That was the easy, now the hard. The desk was missing a drawer, no problem drawers are easy to make, but the ormolu (metal pieces) decorating the drawer were also gone. Being a wood shop we don’t have much business mixing in metals, sparks + sawdust= disaster. So we outsourced the casting, which slowed the whole project by three months. It gave me plenty of time to prep for paint. Once the pieces arrived, we shipped all 56 metal parts to the plater for gold. this is when i started to paint. Many coats of black primer were sprayed and sanded away. Then a catalyzed black lacquer was sprayed, covered by a catalyzed clear with many wet sands in between. Finally the imitation leather top was replaced, with real black leather and cut to size. Once the paint was dry, it was wet sanded and buffed to a piano finish, then all the gold parts were re applied. Currently for sale in Palm Beach, Florida

-- T&G, West Palm Beach