Veneer has been sanded off in places is there any chance of saving this piece?  

My wonderful father decided to restore his Parker dressing table. What a disaster!

You can see from pictures its now looking very distressed and restorers have told me to give up as painting is the only option to save it.

Is there perhaps a way i could somehow camouflage the bad bits and make it look okay? would a stain of some sort work? what about just some teak oil? Howards Restora finish? I am a novice so any info would help.

The top, legs, frame and handles are all still good.

I know it could never look great but would really like to keep it for sentimental reasons. Re-veneering Im told would be quite expensive.
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