Puzzled I am and so was the V&A....

[Woodbloke]

I spent an enjoyable few days last week with No.1 son and No.1 grandson (boy energy!!) in Bromley and on Wednesday last, I spent a fandabby day at the V&A. Just as I was going down the exit tunnel towards the Tube, I decided to look in on the last gallery on the lhs and spotted this very pleasant, late 18th century French writing table:



...which is or was, worth a small fortune. However, on closer inspection, I found that somebody had nailed and screwed:



...some lengths of metal to the bottom of the doors and drawer, so that they couldn't be opened. Around the rim of the writing surface, a metal banding had also been screwed which seemed to be to be completely out of context. It wasn't the only one as I spotted a couple of other pieces:



...with the same metal banding, one of which (no photo, doh!) had been screwed on with modern, slightly rounded head, brass screws!

Having dragged one of the V&A staff over to have a look, they were also puzzled. If the populace of the WH2 could shed some light, I'd be grateful - Rob

 

[AndyT]

How weird!

I can't believe that anyone at the museum would have done that. So maybe it had a really unappreciative owner who didn't want passers by meddling with the interior and told one of his staff to modify it.

Then when the V and A acquired it, they cleaned it up but left the additional metalwork as part of its history.

If that's right, there ought to be an explanation on its gallery description.

Unfortunately, the online search at

Explore the Collections · V&A

Explore the Collections

www.vam.ac.uk

is unavailable at the moment so I can't check this wild guess.

 

[Woodbloke]

How weird!

I can't believe that anyone at the museum would have done that. So maybe it had a really unappreciative owner who didn't want passers by meddling with the interior and told one of his staff to modify it.

Then when the V and A acquired it, they cleaned it up but left the additional metalwork as part of its history.

If that's right, there ought to be an explanation on its gallery description.

Unfortunately, the online search at

Explore the Collections · V&A

Explore the Collections

www.vam.ac.uk

is unavailable at the moment so I can't check this wild guess.

Thanks Andy. When I showed the pieces to the V&A member of staff she confessed complete bewilderment and said "once you see it, you can't unsee it" They were obviously fixed in place years ago, but whoever the culprit was, he or she did catastrophic damage and probably made them virtually worthless. If the metalwork was removed, the nail/screw holes would need an expert repair job and the whole piece(s) would need to be re-polished - Rob