The Furniture Conservation Studio and Upholstery Workshop was established at the National Museum in Krakow in 1966. It was spun off from the carpentry workshop at the request of Stefan Obrzut, who headed the workshop at the time.

The studio is involved in the conservation of furniture and other wooden objects kept in all the departments of the Museum. Conservation procedures are performed on all types of furnishings from various historical periods, of diverse structures, some upholstered.

The complete conservation of a piece of furniture is a multi-stage process. Quite often, old coatings are removed from the wood and then carpentry repairs are performed, followed by finish work on the wood surface as appropriate for the specific object. In many cases the decoration involves special techniques, such as inlay or intarsia. During the renovation of such objects, a variety of wood types are used to fill missing parts, often from exotic species, as well as materials such as ivory, mother of pearl, or metal.

The upholstery on upholstered furniture often requires repair or reconstruction. Such work is also conducted at the studio, involving the use of natural filler materials and suitable textiles.

The surface of the furniture is usually finished with waxing and French-polishing to obtain a high-gloss finish.


Studio team:

• Zbigniew Morawski – head
• Wiesław Michalik
• Piotr Żurek

Contact:
The Main Building
al. 3 Maja 1
tel.  + 48  12 433 55 87