Cabinet cleaned!

I have now cleaned all of the cabinet inside and out, except for the center drawer, which needs re-gluing first. I used Murphy's Oil Soap, to the recommended dilution on the label.  The cabinet was actually quite clean, with just the expected bits of accumulated dust around the embossed trim and in the nooks and crannies of the drawer cases.

The state of the cabinet goes to show that my grandma was absolutely right and you should never ever put anything liquid on top of wood furniture, not even if you think said liquid is safely contained.  Someone has clearly at some point in the past left a mug or glass on the cabinet -- in three separate places! -- long enough to leave a ring.  Worse, it appears that some liquid was spilled on the cabinet (a potted plant, I suspect), which liquid ran across the front corner of the lid and all unnoticed seeped underneath to damage the finish on both the underside of the lid and the corresponding area on the base.  Luckily for us, this seems only cosmetic, as the veneer is still firmly attached.

The drawers all have still-shiny areas where they have been covered by the slats of the open-case sides!

While despite what we all remember from numerous "Antiques Roadshow" episodes is that re-finishing, and in some cases even thorough cleaning, of valuable antiques is generally not advised -- and in many cases what we remember isn't actually their general opinion! -- we also feel that for the most part, the knocks and bumps that a piece of furniture or a sewing machine has received over its life are part of its history, good or bad, and so our aim is not to make our 27-4 "like new".  On the other hand, rings and other water damage are just sad, and so we'd like to do what we can to revive and conserve the machine and its cabinet.

A handprint from the craftsman who stained the cabinet a hundred-some years ago ...