The Party room at Old Parliament House, presented as it was in 1929. It is now used as an interpretive space; the furniture is no longer used.

Much of the furniture has been re-finished through out its life, many times over. Sometimes these finishes do not combine very well and overtime they delaminate from one another. This is a major problem at Old Parliament House. Normal use over seventy years has also taken its toll, though surprisingly many of the chairs and sofa’s still display their original upholstery in good order.

The original finish on most of this furniture was shellac based. When cleaning we can remove most of the later unstable coats of varnishes and polyurethane’s, then re-work the original finish. In a way these topcoats have helped to preserve the original shellac finishes.