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Ironic that I should bring up this subject shortly after my last birthday but since I am interested in Antiques and how to restore, preserve, or even date them, make them presentable for use, etc… I thought I would see if others had similar interests or helpful information.

I realize the subject is broad and I won’t bother to limit it. My main interest is furniture, but can be as sweeping as things found on a farm, flax to linen technique, or what ever I happen to come across on our quest to clear out the unused rooms in our home to prepare it for renovation. The house itself is old- most likely over 500 years in some parts. The dust and cobwebs would agree if they were given voice.

Today we were cleaning out on such room and I came across the following:
A scale stamped 1838
Several books with print dates : 1643, 1790 and several early 1800’s.
An iron (no WONDER they call it that!) with wooden handle, hollowed out for the coal, and a wrought iron holder.

Pictures are more than welcome- as are suggestions of helpful websites (for example- I am looking for brass fixings to match a writing secretary with drop down front- date/period unknown, but the handles have a full figure lion on the fixtures….) Also if you have any experience in cleaning, restoring, preserving etc.. Make yourselves at home and pull up wing chair, grab a snifter of brandy or whatever suits your fancy, and join on in.

Wow, sounds like fun! I am not a collector but I can appreciate nice and interesting old things. Am quite a fan of Antique Roadshow! And because I do make lace, there is also an interest for old linens, flax to linen method, etc.

Hope more folks join in, bye for now!

Your place must be very interesting. We love old structures, but old in this country means something far different. I have mentioned that my mother lives in one of the oldest homes in Indiana, built in 1825.

We've collected many things, including antiques. Our last serious collecting was to furnish a home trying very hard to be a 15th century Norman manor house with a timberframe great room, minstrel gallery, and massive stonework. That drew us away from what we normally find in the US and into the European market.

The most important thing to know is that for valuable pieces much of the value is related to the finish being original. Some people can't live with this and should not collect pieces that should be kept original.

For those willing to tolerate some character in wooden pieces, a good cleaning and a lot of waxing can work wonders. Cleaners like mineral spirits won't remove anything but dirt and wax. There are colored waxes available and used sparingly they can help quite a bit. I prefer amber colored waxes. The nice thing about the wax is that it doesn't harm whatever is left of the original finish. It takes at least 6 coats of wax to start on a newly cleaned piece and a couple of waxings a year keep the finish looking nice. If you visit a high end antique shop in New Orleans, you will notice there are usually several empoyees who do nothing but wax furniture. It really helps.

We find metal finishes are more frequently destroyed than wood finishes. There are many Arts and Crafts metal pieces from the first third of the 20th century for which the finish is the most important part. I've seen many ruined by brasso and other abrasives. They usually have a chemically applied finish that is the actual surface of the metal that is protected by lacquer and is intended to be waxed. 75% of the value is in the finish.

Finding matching parts like hinges, knobs, and key plates is a thankless job. In the US, architectural salvage places are a good source, but it can take hours of searching spread out over months or years to find a match. I'm sitting at a huge wonderful burled Queen Anne partners desk that has one incorrect brass out of its set of twelve that I have been trying to find for as many years. Sometimes you can find a similar matching set and replace them all, but it's hard to find a dozen. Of course, this led to another area of collecting. I have some very nice door plates and knobs that will never be used for their original purpose, but come in handy for coat hangers and such.

I don't mind stripping and refinishing pieces that aren't special, if they are going to get a lot of use. For beauty, I like dozens of hand rubbed coats of tung oil varnish. For durability, polyurethane can't be beat.

I also like to do repair and reconstruction work, but there is never enough time. My next project is a Tudor-Jacobean transition piece that needs 2 small pieces of molding made.

Lacemaker- Welcome

ID- (hope you don't mind if I use that shortened moniker, I realize most folks use IS for the initials )
Thanks, this is exactly the sort of helpful suggestions and information I am looking for. If you have any photos to share (especially the brass fittings ) perhaps in my search I may see something you are looking or likewise.

Some of the pieces we find have been stored (a rather loose term if you can call it that) rather poorly, and some have been 'used' with extra finishing, paint or even contact paper (uugghhh!!!) added. If I want to use some of the pieces, they must be treated with wood worm chemicals to prevent further destruction, and then depending on the piece, might need to either be totally redone (making the antique value rather obsolete), or carefully handled as you have mentioned. It is a great help to know about the specific 'cleaning' materials that will not damage the finish.

Yesterday we unearthed a table made with wooden pegs (no nails). It is warped (the legs on one side bow in), needs to be carefully stretched and re-glued most likely, and unfortunately the surface was covered with yellow contact paper, scratched and a bit gouged.

The room itself is old, an addition to the original house, made up of fachwerk beams and plaster, but totally uninsulated. One can even see cracks and chinks in the wall to the outside. Part of the fachwerk will remain, but the outer walls must be completely redone (sealed and insulated) or we will continue to be doomed with the cold north wind flowing through our hallways in the winter. I will try to get some pictures up later.

We've got plenty of rescued pieces. We found a beautiful French cabinet years ago. It's 9 feet wide about 45 inches tall. The exterior is oak and the interior was pine. The pine had been attacked by termites. The top was destroyed. Only the front was in decent shape. I had to rip out the pine and build a new frame to mount the remnants on. I also made a new top. I also had to make new molding for the side panels that were gone. I have since reworked the 2 center doors and the stop betwen them to be one section to hide a widescreen TV. The cabinet still looks original from the front.

My feeling is that anything you can do to recover an almost destroyed piece is beneficial and the normal rules don't count.

We also tackle old architecture. I have made 2 trips to study our place in France. The main floors are normal challanges, if you consider 4 foot thick walls normal, but the attic space is puzzling and I think I share some of your problems and maybe have a few extra. It's a timber frame structure in the form of a cone, about 40 feet tall with horizontal timbers placed at 12, 22, 30, and 36 feet from the floor. Sheathing rests on the timbers and slate on the sheathing. There is no insulation. The lower timbers span 40 feet with no center support. I am able to treat all of this as a set of trapezoidal segments. Depending upon the need, the timbers range from 12X12 to 6X12. The 6X12s are used for the verticals. So, we essentially have a collection of 40 foot tall, triangular shaped wall segments that are 12 inches deep.

Now for the problems:

- we can't disturb the exterior in any way
- there is no center support in the entire structure
- my wife wants the structural timbers to remain visible
- my wife wants to leave the structure open to the top
- the materials have to be carried up to the floor of the attic (50 feet)

My current plan is to frame the segments with 2X4s, leaving a couple of inches of air space between the frames and the sheathing, fill in the frames with rigid foam insulation, and face the space between the frames with sheet rock (drywall). That leaves the exposed verticals looking like 6X6 timbers.

This will be my 4th and most ambitious major renovation. I have, and will tackle about anything, so if you have any questions, just ask. I may have been there already.

An old formula for keeping wood furniture nice: wax and polish once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a week for a year. I don't do this myself, I read it somewhere.....

Woodworm can be killed by freezing. So if you live in a cold climate put the affected piece where it will freeze hard for a few days.

I have a lot of old furniture, but most of it is not antiques in any real way, it's just hand-me-downs or stuff I bought second hand. For instance, our big sofa was custom built for my in-laws in 1935: not just upholstered, but built from the floor up, it weighs about a ton, I can't move it myself. It will last forever, but it's not an "antique".

I love watching the Antiques Roadshow when the Keno brothers are drooling over some nifty table. Or that old guy Martha Stewart used to have on her show. I really like to see true knowledge, and their pleasure in their work just shines. The fellow who does china on the English roadshow, or the guy who does silver. It's fascinating to see their expertise.

ID, I'd love to see your home one day, it sounds lovely.

That's a good waxing plan Vison, although on a newly cleaned piece using a light colored wax, I start out with several the first day. I'm bad after the first year and usually forget until I notice the wax getting dull.

I love the look of a wax only finish, but it just isn't durable. Another look I like is French polishing, which is at the other extreme, being the most sophisticated. It shares the problem of not being durable. It's slowly built up shellac thinned with alcohol. We have a late 19th century French dining room that has this finish and it is really striking. However, the family has never understood that water is fatal to it. The flat surfaces need to be redone.

We've got several pegged pieces. All are coffers dating from the 16th through 18 centuries. One is an Afghani silver chest that is amazingly similar in construction details to a 16th century English coffer. You can see the progression in understanding of the use of panels with time. At least in our examples, it wasn't resolved until the 18th century.

Don't get dizzy, but here is a shot looking up. The closest timbers are 12 feet up, so the first full visible set is 22 feet up and spans a 16 foot circle. The white spots are light, just as crystal_seed has. The objective is to insulate and provide a light smooth surface between the exposed timbers, without touching the sheathing. The center pole does not extend to the lower 12 feet. That means the attic floor is a 40 foot diameter open circle. Of course, it isn't that simple, but I'll discuss that later.

ID – The structure of the roof sounds similar to our building with the exception that we have a pyramid shaped roof (and a second attic floor).

If I understood you correctly, the roof rests on the walls of the structure and therefore doesn’t need the typical cross beams that a house will use to support the weight of the roof. You do have beams that support the conical shape, but it seems that the principle is similar (or not? )

We have the same thing you described in the attic- the clay tiles rest on small wooden pieces (2 x 4’s perhaps, but I am no engineer)… which are nailed to the main outer frame. There is no insulation, so when the downstairs (second floor or anywhere else for that matter) has poor insulation, the warmth rises quickly up and out of the house. Our house would probably look like it was emitting a huge red cloud on an infra-red scanner to test for tightness of insulation.
We also have the ‘thick’ walls here. Wonderful in the summer to keep things cool without air conditioning or a fan- but the cold stays in, so on cooler days, warmer clothing is necessary.
We also have limitations on what we can do to the house because of State-Historic preservation. Still, things have been done (including removing the barn that was attached to the north side of the house and turning it 90 ° to be parallel to rather than perpendicular with the house. This brought much needed light into (and windows on) the north side. But this is also the side that has the fewest insulated (and therefore useable) rooms.
We have a lot of work ahead of us…

Vison - that sounds like a LOT of waxing, especially if the pieces are big and numerous (But… it would be great for flabby arm muscles )
The freezing of pieces to rid them of woodworm would be good if they were easier to move, but unfortunately this is not the case. For smaller pieces this would be idea, and most likely is the reason some of the wood items were not more decimated than they were.
My favorite program was ‘This Old House’ but that was quite a long while ago. I love looking through magazines and books that have ideas for renovation and restoration, or redecoration (when time allows).



Okay, so as to the pictures (sorry, house pictures come first- must load the ‘old finds’ pictures still)


Second floor landing, looking downstairs to back door. Down the hallway is the entry to the split level ‘newer addition’ of the house.


Doorway to split level (the white stuff is Styrofoam for insulation.. ) The open door looks out onto a balcony that is unusable at the moment, as one cannot stand up straight except next to the outer wall. We will be lifting the roof to make it usable, as well as installing some safety features (railings of some sort). The cats, mice, wasps and weasels like it well enough!


Doorway to our most recent ‘cleaning out effort’. The frame reaches the top of my head. No electricity or insulation in this room. It has not been used for 30 + years. The anteroom is not insulated as well.


Repaired (albeit, temporarily) damage from the previous house owner. Water was allowed to run into the room from the roof, damaging one of the support beams that carries the weight of the roof. This was totally rotted and had to be cut and replaced in part. Just above this piece one can see the cracks open to the roof outside. The ceiling in this room is covered with corrugated cardboard to keep (most of ) the dust and dirt from falling through.



A look into the room- left and right sides: The size is a bit distorted, but you get the idea. The chink in the far left corner gives one a view of the outside. My husband used to play in this room (his hobby train set), and at that time it just had a lightbulb attached to wires hanging from the ceiling. That has been removed (for fire reasons). Under the picture on the far side wall, one can see where a window once was in the fachwerk.

A question- What exactly are ‘mineral spirits’? (I know in a way what it is, and could easily find it in the US- but to describe what it is to my husband, I am at a loss… the closest I could come to is Turpentine but this is a paint thinner and oil base remover rather….I think…)

A second question- What do you prefer using: Wax- liquid or solid? Bees wax? (most of the waxes here have bees wax foundation)

I'll return later, but naphtha and VM&P are other names for mineral spirits.

crystal_seed,

Your guess about the roof structure is correct. It is self contained and just sits there.

We are expecting the cooling effect of the massive walls will satisfy our cooling needs. We, of course, are spoiled by air conditioning. We're not sure about winter. It looks like it rarely is below freezing and a few palm trees on the grounds seem to reflect this. We are hoping to get by with floor heating installed under a tile or stone floor on the main level. The attic space is unresolved.

Moving a room is really ambitious and something I haven't done.

We had a light problem in the US, so before we moved in we had 2 sets of french doors installed, one at either end of a 30 foot sun room that provide light and access from the master bedroom on one end and the living room in the other. It really helped both rooms.

I can see the timbers in the walls of the room. I know what I would be told to do. The window doesn't seem appropriate. We live in a Preservation District in the US and in theory all of the renovation by the developer was controlled. However, he managed to put windows in without real mullions/muntins. One of the people we share the building with, works in Historic Landmarks is who the person who approved all changes works for. She hasn't figured out how this was allowed to happen. In France we have already been told replacement windows must be custom made to match the originals.

On waxes

I generally use Johnson's Paste Wax for most things. It has a parrafin (petroleum) base. It doesn't whiten like beeswax does as it dries out over the years. I've had to deal with carved pieces filled with whitened beeswax. For colored waxes, I use Briwax which is beeswax and carnuba. The carnuba makes a harder finish. I have tried adding carnuba to Johnson's but it doesn't seem worth the effort. Some people say it contains carnuba anyway, but I don't think so. The only thing I use Pledge for is my car (stainless), although my wife uses it for "cleaning". It doesn't seem to interfere with real wax.

The timbers are part of the fachwerk, the actual physical structuring of the walls. In between these is any number of insulating items, from rocks, dirt, straw, dung and so forth. Then this is covered by a plaster. The whole lot is then 'white washed'. This was done before they painted much of anything and can be found in most of the older sections of the house, either that (whitewash in the living quarters) or blackening- which almost looks like a tar pitch. My guess was this was to protect somewhat against woodworm or rot or both. That can be found on the massive beams in the cellar. Of course, there is also blackening of another kind, ash and soot where there were open fires for heating, or in the attic where the second floor was used as a smoke house at one time.
As for the window that has been walled in. Much was done to the house before Historic Preservation or any kinds of regulations ever existed.

The chimney had to be removed because it was a major fire hazard. Because of this, we have a piece like this kakelofen (now in our guest room)- which is virtually unusable.

It does house a small register inside which provides a minimal heating (when the hot water valves are open).

ID- do you know if the area between your living quarters and the attic is well insulated (ie. between the floorboards)? This will make a big difference on how warm it will be in the winter (even IF the winter is mild).

Goodness, it's beginning to sound like 'This Old House'.

And just to keep things on track... here is one of the 'pieces' - the secretary- we will try to make useable. The overall frame is good, but has suffered some cracking and woodworm. It is minus two back feet and has a lot of damaged veneer and the handles are quite destroyed. These two pics are without drawers.

I have a few old radios (1930 - 1940) I am going to sell. They could use some restoral and they take up too much room.

We have a couple of 'old radios' and a TV too! My FIL loves to tinker- I suppose he thought he might restore them eventually to working order. We probably will just try to remove them to the 'resting place for electronic things that have popped a transistor'

I got an offer for the two Philco 1937s I'll probably take.
Shipping such things are a pain though.
The 1930 Westinghouse actually still works but the cabinet is pretty water damaged.