Framed set of WW1 French medals restored.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I recently purchased a set of framed medals at the Liverpool arms fair, and they were in a terrible state. The ribbons were completely rotten, stained with glue and faded. The certificate had patches of paper torn away where someone had tried to re-mount the medals using a combination of epoxy and blue-tack. The frame was in a terrible state. Most of the walnut veneer was completely missing, and the top of the frame had patches of rot which had been crudely filled in.



I started by stripping what was left of the original veneer and replaced with new strips. The whole frame was then treated to a few light coats of French polish and a liberal coating of beeswax polish



The next step was to cut two pieces of thin plywood to mount the medals and replacement ribbons. The certificate was then mounted to a sheet of Birch plywood and the mounted medals were re-attached. The end result was a much improved framed set of medals. I didn't have a clue which order the medals should hang, and Didier (Bichon) kindly supplied me with the required information.

[Spitace41]

Excellent job.

[lithgow]

Somewhere, an old 'Poilu' says "thanks, mon frere".

[harryamb2]

[rbminis]

Well done on a nice little restoration project!
Ralph.

[Tango]

Excellent job done here I think that will display great in any War Room.. Cheers Terry.

[Wagriff]

Looks just fine, like it must have originally looked. Good careful work!

[Walkwolf]

Nice save......... !

[AZPhil]

Fantastic Job Harry! 1000% better looking

[NickW]

I have several of these sets, including a couple with the same frame and with the same card - always prefer to put names to artefacts and such a shame French medals were not named, so this is the only way to get this history - superb restoration job and some inspiration to do a couple of mine - nice to have the wounded medal with the mention in the inscription too

Here's my most recent one

Yes he was a balloonist!