Black Forest Gnome

Black Forest Gnome

Oct 31

 

Here’s a great gnome carved in the Black Forest style.

 

It came in with a broken beard.

 

 

Got it all fixed up and made a custom base for it.

 

 

 

This piece came out great and has been added to my own personal collection.

 

A big thank you goes out to one of my blog readers for sending me the link to this piece on Ebay!

 

—– Brandon

New Piece

New Piece

Mar 04

 

Here’s a new piece we just added to our collection.

 

I bought it off of Ebay. It was in need of some dental work and a finish refresh.

 

Here are a few pictures of the piece before I worked on it:

 

 

 

 

The face looked fat to me so I reshaped it a little, fixed the teeth, refreshed the stain, and finished it off with a couple coats of satin clear.

 

Here are a few pictures of the piece after the restoration work:

 

 

 

 

 

This piece really came out great and turned out to be a really nice birthday present for my wife.

 

—– Brandon

Anri Parrot

Anri Parrot

Oct 29

 

With Fall in the air and Winter just around the corner, I’ve been trying to get some of the outdoor work done before bad weather hits. In between sealing the drive, raking leaves, etc., I’m still able to squeeze in some restorations.

 

Here’s a really rare Anri Parrot that was sent in by a Nutcracker Collectors’ Club member. It was missing the beak and was in need of an overall refresh on the finish.

 

Here are some before pictures when it arrived:

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures after the repairs and clean up:

 

 

 

Here’s a couple shots of the back of the piece showing that this piece actually still has the Anri sticker intact.

 

That not only adds to the rarity of the piece, but verifies the age of it as well.

 

 

 

 

Based on the Anri Logo Legend below, that sticker dates this piece to 1925.

 

 

 

This was a great piece to work on. These are crazy rare and even more so with the sticker intact.

 

The customer was very happy with the repairs and age sensitive finish refresh that was done to this piece.

 

A big “Thank You” goes out to the the original owner of this piece who contacted me before posting it for sale on Ebay. He emailed me to get permission to mention my shop in his description as a trusted source to get the piece repaired.

 

The winning bidder turned out to be one of my customers who was very impressed to see my shop mentioned in the Ebay ad. Again, thank you.

 

—– Brandon

 

 

An Old Anri

An Old Anri

Sep 24

 

Here’s a great old Anri nutcracker I picked up off of Ebay about a year or so ago.

 

It was missing an upper lip and had a few chips in the hat and above the lever in the back.

 

Again, I was a bit eager and forgot to get good photos before I started on the repairs.

 

So here are some pictures of it in process:

 

 

 

This was another one of those pieces that you want to do a light restoration on.

 

Fix the obvious breaks and details, but leave the rest alone to retain the authenticity of the piece.

 

Here are a few pictures of the piece after it was restored:

 

 

 

 

 I’m very pleased with how well the piece came out.

 

—– Brandon

Face repair

Face repair

Sep 17

 

Just finished repairing a great really old (1700’s) Boxwood piece.

 

This came in with most of the face missing and a pretty big chunk missing from the front of the lever.

 

Here are a couple pictures when it came in:

 

 

 

Here’s a photo of it in process of being repaired.

 

New Boxwood has been attached, carved, and is waiting to be stained and blended.

 

 

Here are a couple photos of the piece done:

 

 

 

 

 

This was a challenging repair.

 

I want to thank Arlene Wagner from the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum for sending me reference photos of pieces she has from this time period so I could make sure the details I needed to add were authentic to the piece.

 

—– Brandon

 

Bear chewin’ on a Feedbag

Bear chewin’ on a Feedbag

Sep 10

 

Here’s a fantastic piece I got to restore recently for one of the Nutcracker Collectors’ Club members.

 

It’s a really rare screw type nutcracker of a bear chewing on a feedbag.

 

This piece has a ton of detail and is very well done.

 

It came in with a broken feedbag nub, hole in the base, and chipped ears.

 

Here are a couple before pictures:

 

 

 

Here are a couple pictures after all the repairs were made:

 

 

 

This was a fun piece to work on and came out great!

 

—–Brandon