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Portable Apothecary Restoration
Portable Apothecary Restoration
A good friend of mine used to be involved in the Civil War Re-enactment hobby, and did an impression of a hospital steward. For this, he had meticulously collected an impressive array of period or reproduction bottles, medical supplies, carrying bags and cases, uniforms, tents, furniture, and other sundrys and accessories. Once he retired from the hobby, the collection sat in storage for many years, until he decided to pass it on to other re-enactors who would use it and appreciate it.
After being in storage for so long, some of the pieces needed work to put them back in usable condition. One of these was a portable apothecary, which was built as a sort of medicine cabinet on a backpack. Bottles of liquids stored in the apothecary had leaked through the deteriorating corks, and had glued the sliding drawers tight into their slides. The bottles had also firmly adhered themselves into the drawers themselves. Furthermore, one of the swiveling latches on the outside of the box had been smashed off, and needed to be replaced. However, this hardware is not readily available, so to replace it would require scratch-fabricating a new latch and the spring-loaded "guts" which cause it to swivel and lock every 90 degrees turned.
The gallery here shows the restoration work I did on the apothecary, including deep cleanimg, removing stuck drawers and bottles, re-painting the insides of the drawers, re-attaching the peeling outer upholstery, scratch-fabricating the missing latch, and getting everything realigned and properly fit.
A good friend of mine used to be involved in the Civil War Re-enactment hobby, and did an impression of a hospital steward. For this, he had meticulously collected an impressive array of period or reproduction bottles, medical supplies, carrying bags and cases, uniforms, tents, furniture, and other sundrys and accessories. Once he retired from the hobby, the collection sat in storage for many years, until he decided to pass it on to other re-enactors who would use it and appreciate it.
After being in storage for so long, some of the pieces needed work to put them back in usable condition. One of these was a portable apothecary, which was built as a sort of medicine cabinet on a backpack. Bottles of liquids stored in the apothecary had leaked through the deteriorating corks, and had glued the sliding drawers tight into their slides. The bottles had also firmly adhered themselves into the drawers themselves. Furthermore, one of the swiveling latches on the outside of the box had been smashed off, and needed to be replaced. However, this hardware is not readily available, so to replace it would require scratch-fabricating a new latch and the spring-loaded "guts" which cause it to swivel and lock every 90 degrees turned.
The gallery here shows the restoration work I did on the apothecary, including deep cleanimg, removing stuck drawers and bottles, re-painting the insides of the drawers, re-attaching the peeling outer upholstery, scratch-fabricating the missing latch, and getting everything realigned and properly fit.
Click picture for more detail
Click picture for more detail