Featured Proper ways to clean and care for antiques

Years ago on Ebay, I got into several tiffs with someone who old-timers here will remember as advising people to use Tarnex on metal and sandpapering wood, etc. Very bad advice if you are trying to conserve an antique. Ebay sided with him and I got pink-slapped and given two week "vacations" several times.

I'm beginning to see comments on various pages here by well-meaning individuals who may not understand conservation. Once you've stripped, sanded and polyurethaned a piece of furniture it is no longer an antique. Maybe there are the bones underneath, but you've removed the patina and the charm that most of us find desirable. I think that sort of thing belongs on a different forum. Using a hot needle to test something is another particular cringe-worthy suggestion.

I understand it can't be prevented or weeded out, but I hope that those more knowledgable here can respond with the right kind of information that will help newbies find the best way to care for their antiques.

Sorry. Not meaning to rant or be critical, but I've run across too many ruined items in my time.

 

Bev, no need to apologise, you are absolutely right, so thank you.

 

I got $45 once for a vintage plastic pin. I could have gotten more but some idiot had stuck a hot pin in the back.

 

Couldn't agree more...
I've got my share of ruined jewellery, filed, acid tested directly on the piece leaving permanent marks
That and the frenzy to over clean antique silver before sending... Grrr!

A beautiful Jules Wièse brooch, as received:

Awful aluminum color of the silver cherubs!!!

After boiled eggs and exposition to sulfur matches fumes, light rub to enlighten the reliefs, much much better:

 

Here, here! I often refer people to the Canadian Conservation Institute publications
https://www.canada.ca/en/conservati...tive-conservation/guidelines-collections.html
or the National Park Service Preservation Briefs https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs.htm .
Both on-line and FREE!

 

They missed a few bits.

I agree.

 

Don't get me started.

 

It all depends on the item. Imo we antique nerds are too precious about what were (still are in many cases) pedestrian domestic items. A bog standard Victorian oak table isn't a valuable historic item, countless 1000's still exist and they were made for everyday people. So if someone wants to make it fit their home by stripping/painting/re-varnishing it's up to them. If it makes it worth £50 instead of £100 so what - if that brings enjoyment and purpose to the item for someone no harm has been done.

Silver is another case in point, it's meant to be shiny. When it was made, it was shiny, in most cases it was meant to be kept polished, originally you'd be considered slovenly if your silverware was tarnished - wanting it to have patina is a recent thing. Check the historic silver at Buckingham Palace and see if it's all tarnished and black!

Thing is, just because some of us want things to look their age and not be altered doesn't mean other people have to want the same, and we shouldn't try and be gatekeepers and look down at others that don't share the same opinion.

There are of course exceptions, historic and important pieces should be conserved for the greater public value, but really how many pieces like that come through these pages each year? Just because something is old doesn't mean we should automatically have reverence for it and treat it like a museum piece.

 

"Silver is another case in point, it's meant to be shiny."


but not coins.......... ( right Davey ! )

exceptions abound !!

 

There's shiny and there's the dead look which Tarnex gives.

 

The problem is, most people do not have the knowledge to determine whether something has historic importance before they whip out the Tarnex and sandpaper. It just seems safer to advise the most conservative approaches.

 

@kyratango
The first photo those cherubs look like rabbits caught in the headlights, the second photo you can almost hear their sigh of relief!

 

How many people really have a piece of historic value, how many historically valuable items have been posted on this site in the last 12 months - and we are talking about advice after someone has posted about their item - if it's a Chippendale cabinet no one is going to suggest sanding and painting.

 

the majority of newer posts , are only looking for the value of items they hope are expensive .

 

... that grandma gave them, hoping to pass them down, so they can cash them in...

 

Gotta say, respectively of course - the problem with your opinion is there is very clearly a slope here... and IMHO such disregard for *lesser* older items is the soap that makes it all slippery.

The more permissive we are, the more we liberally advocate this DIY/ReDo/Upcycle trend, then the more people doing so.... the more NEW!!! websites urging "freshening old junky thrifted brown furniture" -- etc ad nauseum..... It naturally follows that the voices of those who oppose such "artistic expression" are drowned out by the paint-smeared "influencers" and the less preservation - minded types are acknowledged....which means that the truly wonderful and special pieces ALSO inevitably fall into the FUNKY PAINTED FURNITURE abyss -- since no one knows or cares about old things anymore except as *ugly *brown* makeover candidates reborn as tacky candy colored "fun" "statement" "funked up" garbage..... of course, the more anyone objects, the voices who have a RIGHT to DOOO WHAT I WANNA DOOOO rise in unison, albeit in a chorus that sounds off-key... at least to me.

One last thing -- I am old enough to remember the horrible *freshened-up *antiqued* pieces which were the victims of similar "trendsetters" during the 50s&60s.... which produced the rabid *JUST STRIP IT!!!* type during the 70s & 80s. Wasn't a fan of those guys either! .... /rant

 

Ok- I can't argue with your guys's observations, informed by years of experience. But I can ask, is that not a legitimate way to get started in collecting? I mean, it's rare that someone starts with a passion for Victorian tastes or Chinese dynastic art and then begins collecting furniture or porcelain. Starting with a 'I think I found this object of big time monetary value' can be an entry point. Hopefully, people then move beyond that mercantile attitude.

And, in the interest of adding to the convo, it'd be interesting to hear from some more experienced collectors how they got started themselves. Was it in hopes that a random object they came to posses was worth some money?

 

I share your concern about over refinished antiques, but honestly as a beginner it’s hard to know what to do!

I was thinking of using MiniWax Antique refinisher on this old solid wood trunk. I welcome feedback before I do it!

 

In my case it was simply the love of beauty.
I have been collecting long enough to know that what has value one day, can be almost worthless the next. My enjoyment of beauty lasts much longer, hopefully for the rest of my life.

 

Tanya, I suggest you repost over in furniture under a new topic heading. if you can get some better pics of the surface and describe what is on there now.. paint? varnish?.. both? At first glance I'd say the surface looks quite rough and any steel wool or cloth will get hung up on it.