Antique Conservation

Restoration, conservation, repair, preservation, refinishing, or stripping … what does all this mean? Antiques are a daunting and confusing concept in themselves to many people, let alone the process of bringing one back to life. Antiques are a world amongst themselves, with rules of etiquette and procedures appropriate to maintaining or restoring the greatest value.

Artisans provides the knowledge and experience required to work with your antiques, assuring that the best decisions are made to repair and maintain your pieces. We enjoy working with antiques, and spend significant time studying how they were made, their values, and the appropriate methods to restore their value.

Some quick definitions:

• Conservation: Detail oriented process designed to preserve as much original finish and materials as possible while bringing the piece back to as close to its original condition as possible. Artisans specializes in conservation, we always provide our customers options to preserve the antique value as opposed to reducing it with unnecessary efforts.

• Finish Restoration: Process of brining an existing finish back to life. Involves re-emulsifying the original finishing solids to return the finish to close to original condition while removing the dirt and grime accumulated over years of use.

• Preservation: The process of stopping or slowing deterioration usually does not involve actual restoration or attempts to return the piece to its original condition. Damage and finish deterioration are left intact, but prevented from going further. This process is usually done on museum works; we recommend a conservation or restoration process for home use of antiques.

• Refinishing: Removing a finish and applying a new finish in its place. This process destroys significant portions of antique value in furniture and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

• Repair: Physical structural replacement or reinforcement of parts of the original piece. May involve addition of new materials altered to appear aged or the application of antique materials to improve appearance of repair and preserve as much value as possible.

• Restoration: Bringing a piece back to close to its original condition including structural and finish repairs.

• Stripping: Avoid stripping antiques at almost any cost, stripping in its true sense involves dipping the piece in a chemical bath that will remove finish, patina, and in some cases the glue holding the piece together. A stripped antique is truly stripped, mainly of its value. Veneering may peal, joints will swell or break apart, and the piece usually has to be completely rebuilt. This applies in cases where someone has foolishly stripped the piece in the past and applied inappropriate finishes that must be removed.

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