[Ben Humphrys]

We’re in the process of refurbishing a relative’s much beloved Pye ‘Jewel case’ Q4 which she has owned and treasured for 62 years. There were many missing and broken parts, so we were lucky to win with a reasonably low bid for a donor set on eBay; this to be robbed for hinges, knobs and so-forth.

The set under repair was pretty grubby. The cleaning was done rather zealously and as a result the covering now has a bleached appearance. The donor set is fairly well preserved but is now a manky brown colour. Neither set could be considered to be a ‘jewel’, in any sense of the word.

With the Pye badge and hinges removed, the unexposed areas seem to offer a bit of a clue about their original appearance. Both sets under these parts look much brighter and are similar to each other in colour and gloss (see pics). It looks as though the brown colour of the exposed surfaces of the donor is due to the originally transparent finishing lacquer having changed over the intervening 60 years to a brown patina.

I’m thinking:
-These sets are in a wooden case, covered with a decorative film. The film on the radio body was predominantly airforce blue, or similar, and that on the lid was white, or off-white.
-The surface of the film was a simulated ‘lizard skin’ texture embossed pattern, possibly PVC.
-The textured surface of the lid, now not quite white, is painted or sprayed with a pale grey paint coating.
-The paint seems to have settled in the crevices of the PVC lizard skin texture, making the embossed pattern easier to see.
-The blue body seems to be unpainted.
-The final coating was presumably originally a lot more glossy, perhaps some kind of lacquer. It’s possible that more lacquer was added after the case had been constructed since the hinges seem to have a brown coating on them, too. With a glossy coating, perhaps it would shine like a jewel?

Can anybody confirm or deny these possibilities, or add any information to this?

There are probably no chances of getting back to the original appearance, but it needs a bit of a cosmetic lift, doesn't it? Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated.

There is some blue and some grey Cherry shoe revival cream on its way, what are the chances of success, if we use these, do you reckon?