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admin on March 19th, 2009
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Typically coffee tables are low tables typically designed to be placed in front of a couch, to support beverages, coasters, magazines, books and similar items.
TV remote controls are other items typically found on a coffee table, and that leads to the main reason why these tables are low; so they do not obstruct the view of a TV.
In the old days, when actual antiques were crafted, without any TVs, there was no great need of such low tables, so antique examples that are genuine, are really difficult to find.
Most examples that are actually antique or preantique (just a few years younger than century old pieces), are from the beginning of the 20th century, and many of the Art Deco period.
With the TV making way in every home and in every living room, coffee tables were to be mass produced and seen in almost every home and TV room.
Many were clearly inspired by antique styles and materials, but will never be antiques.
If found they are usually not cheap, and choice is limited, but they are little treasures.
With tall lamps and flower vases, these low tables can decorate many other corners and areas of a home.
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admin on March 15th, 2009
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If it’s an antique, find and use the appropriate wax remover at hardware stores, but not just the build up, all of it.
As an authentic English antique, it should be French Polished, not waxed.
You can use any alternative, oils, polyurethane, wax, but it’s objectively wrong and anyway, not even close to being as nice.
And if value is important to you, and it should otherwise why care for antiques, a nice English antique piece of furniture made after the late 1700s until the 1930s should be French Polished with no doubt at all.
Not only British antiques, also many non English high end pieces were, and therefore should be, french polished.
By
admin on March 15th, 2009
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There’s an old rule, as old as collecting antiques, that is that quality is always on demand and always sells.
It’s truly an antiques buyers’ market, with prices lowering as the recession worsens, but that applies to common pieces that will always turn up.
Antiques are not newly manufactured goods that can be made to order, if there’s demand for a piece, it’s irreplaceable and therefore the price has to go up.
With lower end antiques, assuming they really are so, it’s just too easy to wait for better times and/or for lower prices. If a piece sells, chances are that another of the same type, age or quality will be found.
During a recession, there are always people that want rare and/or quality pieces and that can afford them.
These pieces also prove as a valid long term investment, and therefore their value never decreases.
For antiques’ dealers, it’s a matter of focusing and specializing, with experience and knowledge to deal in the right niche, clients will never go missing.
We, at Old England Antiques for example, focus on truly antique furniture, at the very least 100 years old, historically restored by french polishing.
Antique furniture has also many pros that other items don’t; they are decorative, appreciate in value, they are restorable, and they usually serve a practical purpose too, such as storage, support, and so on.
For those reasons English antique furniture appeals to collectors looking for an addition to their collection, private buyers that want to add a piece to their home, and investors, for an almost certain long term return; consequently they appeal to antique dealers, because there’s always a market for English antiques, after all, we regularly see buyers from all over the world compete at auctions and fairs in England and the rest of the British Isles.
It takes a very deep depression to make all antiques lower in value and anyway the higher end ones will always be the last.
By
admin on March 13th, 2009
Posted in Restoration and refinishing | No Comments »
We prefer to restore and repolish our antiques as we sell them.
The reason is that once sold, we know the requirements of the buyers and can adjust the finish so to have them satisfied to the best possible degree.
We have opened the English antiques’ store less than a year ago, so many of our clients are still first time buyers, and are initially sceptical of French polishing. This technique is often unheard of and many local restorers do not use it, preferring oiling, waxing, spraying, and many antique dealers even suggest that it’s better to leave antiques as they are.
Unfortunately for them, we know that it’s wrong and just convenient, and we have 30 years of experience in the business in Europe, where restorers that are true to the tradition do it the right way, that is, french polishing.
So, with very few restorers use this old technique that was traditionally implemented to higher end antiques for centuries, and to English antique furniture in particular.
That’s why many don’t know what french polishing is about, what is shellac, and confuse the shine of hand rubbed shellac with modern polyurethane sprayed contemporary and reproduction furniture.
However, in ALL cases, the clients that trusted us and our restoration technique were not disappointed, they were ALL impressed and satisfied of the quality of the finish.
Besides, when shellac is applied with a rubbing pad, pieces cannot shine perfectly as if glazed and like pieces that are spray lacquered.
The finish, however accurate, will never be perfect and look vitrified.
We are sorry, but it’s done by hand, it shows and it must!
That’s how pieces were finished originally when made by skilled craftsmen of the past centuries, and that’s how we do it in the 21st century and as it should always be done forever.
There’s no other way to recover the original look and the full value of an antique!
By
admin on March 13th, 2009
Posted in Antiques' tips | No Comments »
When shopping for antiques remember never to buy something that you don’t like, but never just because you like it.
If it looks like a good deal, if it’s practical, if it’s gorgeous or you feel bad not buying it, these are all good reasons for not buying an antique if at the same time you don’t truly like it.
And the same if you don’t have the room, if it’s too expensive for your pockets, if it doesn’t serve any purpose, then don’t buy it either.
If you buy it anyway, there’s a chance that you will get tired of it and regret the purchase.
So, you should buy with both your heart and your brain; buy something you like, that you can afford, that serves a practical purpose, that beautifies your home.
By
admin on March 13th, 2009
Posted in General | No Comments »
We finally received and unloaded the container packed with authentic British antiques, mainly antique furniture, that so many of you subscribers of our newsletters have been waiting for.
We have chests of drawers, side tables, sideboards, nesting tables, china display cabinets, bookcases, trolleys; they’re in mahogany, oak, walnut of the Victorian, edwardian, Georgian, Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau period, inlaid, carved, turned, solid, veneered, restored and unrestored, and so much variety of pieces that you have to come and see to understand the antiques that we offer.
The sooner you come, the more opportunities to view the pieces before others and the more pieces that will not have been sold yet.
By
admin on March 13th, 2009
Posted in Antiques' Facts | No Comments »
However strange it may sound, shellac is a natural resin that is so non toxic that it’s edible!
Not many know that the resin produced by the ‘lac bug’ to make cocoons on trees in south east Asia, just as silk is produced by silkworms, can be eaten with no harm, and after taking out other organic materials such as leaves and twigs.
Many actually don’t know that they eat shellac regularly, by ingesting common products such as apples, pills, candies (many are sprayed with shellac to make them shiny), granola bars (where shellac also helps to keep the various components together, like natural and edible glue), even some toys are coated with shellac to preserve children’s health. They cannot be in danger of getting poisoned by furniture surfaces if they are coated with pure and natural shellac. And because shellac is melted in alcohol, it’s even safer.
That’s why shellac as a coating for products and in food has the FDA approval.
While I wouldn’t suggest to have a meal based on the shellac flakes that we use for polishing our English antiques, it’s always nice to be able to say to our clients, many of which have children, that the finish that we use is so clean and non toxic that it’s even edible! And it’s a fact!
By
admin on March 10th, 2009
Posted in General, Store hours | No Comments »
Please note that Old England Antiques will reopen on March 12, 2009 @ 10 am.
Please ignore the sign on the entrance door that says that we will reopen on March 11, 2009 @ 1 pm.
Thank you!
By
admin on March 5th, 2009
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…that’s what someone wants to know and I will satisfy the request by answering as follows:
Whether authentic or not, there are many finishes to choose from. However, if you want to maintain and enhance the value of the piece, as an authentic antique piece from England, there’s only one way to go, at least in most cases;
that way is French Polish.
Since the late 1700s when shellac was discovered in India/southeast Asia as a way to finish wood, and even more so in the 1800s, in England they would use only shellac, applied by hand of course, with a rubbing pad.
Quality pieces would be finished in that way.
Lesser quality ones instead kept being oiled or waxed, as French Polishing is labour intensive, requires skill and experience, and natural materials, such as shellac, which is so natural that it’s actually edible, became increasingly expensive.
Synthtic materials on the other hand are cheaper to buy, cheaper and faster to apply, even with spray guns, and look perfect.
However, polyurethane and similar products are appropriate for cheap modern pieces, because it’s a cheap way to finish them and make them look good.
Shellac finished furniture can be easily repaired, and do not require a total redo.
Shellac is also warmer to the eyes, softer to the touch, and totally non toxic, which with kids around is always a major concern.
So in brief, an authentic antique table, particularly if English or anyway of high quality, should be finished by French Polishing.
In that way the pice would look more beautiful, the grain of the wood would relly stand out, and that’s great with quality woods such as antique mahogany, walnut, rosewood, satinwood and a few others. The value of the piece would be enhanced, the look of the piece would be the original one, the easiness of repairs to scratches for instance would be impressive.
By
admin on March 4th, 2009
Posted in General, Store hours | No Comments »
We are sorry to inform you that we will be closing early, at 2PM, for a delivery.