RESTORATION OF A LOUIS VUITTON MAIL TRUNK

For several years Malle2luxe has been restoring heritage , defending know-how and promoting French craftsmanship. Associated with the largestcollectors and curators of old luggage in the world, Malle2luxe also fights by denouncing unscrupulous practices that harm collectors and the collector's trunk market.

This Louis vuitton mail trunk is once again the sad example :

• Counterfeit decorative stable band .
• Repainted initials
• Varnished canvas .
• Plastic handle .
• Damaged padding. 
• Brass scratched by the previous restoration.
• Putty and addition of synthetic resin.
• Etc 

The defects are numerous and seem to condemn this Louis Vuitton Circa 1910 trunk. Our job as a restorer in old luggage is to  find the original condition of the trunk before its last trip, 90 years ago.

The varnish applied to the canvas trapping all the grime, the first step of our restoration was to remove the thick layer of varnish , then to clean the canvas with the Mark II stencil in order to remove the  accumulated pollution, pollution, grease ... during the last hundred years. Centimeter after centimeter the canvas breathes and regains its original shine.

Remove repainting from non-original decorative bands. These bands   

added only to facilitate the sale , and to create a whimsical story .

These decorative bands hide the flaws in the canvas that the seller did not know how to restore. We estimate that 70% of stable tapes are counterfeit

We were able to remove 85% of the repaints and restore the damaged canvas underneath.  

Polyester resin additions have also been removed.

Restoration of deeply scratched brasses . The totally massacred brasses, deformed by the wire brush, had to be reworked in order to find flat and shinysurfaces , as during the last trip of the trunk.

Disassembly and replacement of machine-sewn plastic handles . The handles of leather trunks are often damaged . The technicality and the price of a handle of the same quality encourage resellers and second-hand dealers to install handles at low cost, in poor quality leather and machine-sewn, in order to increase their margin. Indeed the original handles are hand sewn, saddle stitch in high quality vegetable tanned cowhide leather . On this trunk the replacement handles were not even in leather but in plastic, the rivets stuck with glue! Beyond the questionable aesthetic side, and malicious practicesit is a real loss of value for the trunk. We therefore manufactured, adjusted the color of the leather in order to find the original aesthetic.

Removal of repainting. The typography and shading of the initials painted by Louis Vuitton are very specific . We were happy to be able to find under the repaint, the original initials in perfect condition . The red frame could be completely removed.

The quilting, like the handles, is an element of wear . This one had been redone twice during its life, including once by Louis Vuitton. We therefore had to dismantle the interior and redo it identically to the original. The materials and techniques have not changed. The result is perfect.