Witco Ship? A little help on identity and repair please

I bought this Witco piece in Columbus. I love it. I love the colors and it's narrow, so it takes less wall space. Ms Swanky and Makalina say they think it's a tall ship. I prefer it as abstract, but I see what they see.

It does have some surface scratches on it I want to mend. What's the best way? My first thoughts are some oil, but that might change the tone a good bit. My second thought was BriWax. What would work best.

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[ Edited by: swanky 2006-03-07 16:08 ]

Nice tall ship, Swanky! I too want to know how to clean my wood. I'm afraid to do anything but rub the dust off.

Maybe it's the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María all lined up ready to sail!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2005-09-02 21:11 ]

I love that one! I think puamana has one just like it. I wish I could help you, but I don't know how best to address the scratches without changing the overall look of the wood, as you say. However, I bet Ken Pleasant does -- you could try emailing him (his email is on his profile, keigs20).

I like the imagination but my minds eye sees a dead on tall ship coming my way. Witco did do the "Caravan" of the Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta but I was like 10 years old when I saw it and that was 30 years ago. A friend's dad was all over the conquisidor stuff and he had the "caravan" as well as the entire conquisidor living room suite. It was like a dungeon going into the living room. Full suits of armor and dangerous killing clubs complimented the crimson upolstered Witco. I wish I could see that room again. If Elvis turned the TV room at Graceland into a dungeon; he would have filled it with Conquisidor Witco.

Hello,

The piece is indeed a boat, it is titled “sailing ship”.

First off it’s most important to keep in mind you are dealing with a fairly old piece of art, they were not made with the most long lasting of materials and you just have to accept them for what they are.

As far as re-finishing; although many Witco pieces were treated with wax, the large majority were finished with a varnish of some sort. Recoating over any kind of varnish can be difficult, but when you’re not sure what the original decades old material was buffing out or spraying over a scratch (on those) is inviting disaster.
To do a decent job you would have to remove the pieces of wood from the board they are mounted on and that particular material is very fragile after 40 years, again another problem.
Then you could scrub the finish off with a soft bristled scrubbing wheel; hope you don’t discolor some previously burned areas. If all goes well re spray with a new varnish, or apply a new coat of wax (we use Howard’s), then remount the wood to its original place on the board.
Personally I’d just leave it alone there are a lot worse things than minor scratches, all of the Witco’s we own have never been treated, I think it gives them a wonderful aged look.

My very best alohas

Bosko