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This has been a slow nervous job as I didn't want to ruin a piece of history.
The bottom was broken and my attempts to glue it back together were just not enough to support the load so finally I added some support wood.
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Thanks to the advice on this site I have finally gently cleaned and then added shellac to protect the hand painting.
Still have to repair the mache on the bottom and add missing mother of pearl squares to the top.
Cleaning and seeing so much of the artwork made me realise that a skilled artist worked on this.
I'll have to get suitable matching chess pieces to go with it :)
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