Wood (sic) You Believe It? A Job That Is Easier Than Expected. And One For Indiana Jones - 27 July, 2018

A nice mix of jobs today.

First of all, got up late - no doubt because I had taken a sleeping tablet when the hot humid weather had kept me awake long enough.

First task of the day - laundry and cleaning. Tim arrives tomorrow, to start looking at the electrics, and so I want things as fresh and clean as is practical. I set to it, cleaning the sinks, shower, loo etc. and washing sheets, towels and face-cloths - as well as the general laundry that has accumulated. I have to give it to Sally, I'd never really appreciated how much laundry accumulates and how quickly.

I secure a set of garage shelves that were leaning precariously and then it is off to the boulangerie for some bread. I didn't eat properly yesterday and so had a decent breakfast and lunch today - including a bier (as a result of which, despite rising late, I treated myself to a nap).

Right! Main job of the day is supposed to be rubbing down the skirting and door frames on the first floor landing. As I am contemplating this, I also remember the plan to rub down the stair furniture behind where the large radiator sits. We haven't really decided what we want to do with the stairs - but we know it is currently too dark for our tastes. One suggestion had been to paint the spindles white and have the hand rail darker. But as I look at the stairs I think this would be a shame. Once they are painted, we'll probably never take them back to the bare wood again - and the wood look could be nice.

I discuss this with Sally on the phone and we agree we should try and rub down the existing varnish to see what the wood looks like beneath. I set too it, expecting to get through sheet after sheet of sand paper as it clogs up with what appears to be rather thick varnish.

To my surprise and delight, the varnish come off relatively easily and with minimal clogging of the sandpaper. A most unusual turn of events for this house, where we typically find jobs take at least twice as long as we expect (usually due to the previous owner having taken a decorating shortcut). And the wood beneath, whilst a hard wood, is coming up relatively light.

The pictures below show the result part way through the of the first pass of sanding (I'll need another pass to get down to the bare wood across the piece):

 

Once the first pass of sanding was done and the stairs were vacuumed (the vacuum cut-out due to overheating - the first time I've ever known that to happen), and before jumping in the much anticipated shower, I had one more dirty job I wanted to do...

When we bought the house, at the back of the first-floor fireplace, there was what looked like an iron firescreen. When we moved it, expecting to see a fireplace behind it, there was nothing there. The 'firescreen' was dirty and very heavy so I had taken it down to the garage for temporary storage. Today I wanted to clean it up and spray it with black heat resistant paint.

I got to work with a wire-brush attachment for the drill. As I cleaned it I quickly noticed a date at the base: 1673. Now I'm more interested. When cleaned, it is clear there is a coat-of-arms too; a pair of griffins rampant either side of a shield with three fleur-de-lys and topped by a crown. Above the coat-of-arms are the following letters:

SBVL CONTREGTOV

I believe that is what the letters are. The casting is a fairly crude sand-casting, and some of the letters are difficult to be sure of - for example, there may be more spaces in the sequence, and/or the last 'T' could be a 'Y'. I assume the language is Latin; though it could be French.

Here is is, cleaned up:

So, for any budding Indiana Jones's out there, here are some questions:

• How likely is it that it is really 345 years old?
• Who's are/were the coat-of-arms?
• What was the original purpose of the item?
• What does SBVL CONTREGTOV mean?

Would love to know the answers.