This is what I have to work with when someone tries a do-it-yourself antique restoration before giving up and sending it to me. I sometimes have to first repair others mistakes before I can properly restore a piece. The elephant has bad damage but is more typical of work I receive with broken and missing pieces that I will hand carve. It will take some time but I will properly restore both of these antique pieces.
NOTE: I just want to add that I did complete all these pieces and the work went as I planned. The most difficult piece turned out to be the elephant legs. The carving took a little longer than I had hoped to get them matched correctly with the rest of the animal. Carving is always the hardest part of any restoration because the piece you’re creating is totally missing and there is usually no photo of the intact carving before it broke. That means I have to really examine the piece in its entirety to get a good sense of how the new piece I’m carving will match the overall look and feel of the piece. Fortunately, most pieces will speak to me early on and tell me what they need and how it should look.
