restorations · The Lead
A Pair of Rosewood Opera Glasses, Re-Collimated
A pair of Lemaire of Paris opera glasses, c. 1880, came into a small optical workshop in Vienna with mother-of-pearl losses, misaligned prisms, and a velvet case that had not been opened in fifty years.
In this issue
A Specialist Clock Sale Outside Boston
One afternoon at a single-discipline clock auction in Marlborough, where the bidders all know each other and the catalogue is a working census.
The Bone Folder and the Paper Conservator's Hand
A small tongue of polished bone, shaped like a flattened spoon, is the most-used object on the bench of a paper conservator working in a Glasgow studio.
A Bookbinder in Bristol's Stokes Croft
Eleri Penrose rebinds, repairs, and conserves cloth and leather books from a shopfront on Picton Street. On a Monday in June she rebacks an 1879 family Bible.
A Collection of American Trade Cards, 1880 to 1905
In a third-floor apartment in Chicago, the retired graphic designer Henry Carmichael has assembled 6,318 American trade cards from the chromolithography boom of 1880 to 1905.
From the editor
"What it was made for, and what it's still good for."
— Hester Lloyd · Editor in chief
The Right Storage for Antique Textiles: A Pennsylvania Quilt Collection
Helga Schoenfeld's eighty-four quilts, the rolled-tube method, and the case against cedar chests for anything you actually want to keep.
The Cookbook with Six Marginalia
An 1861 first edition of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, found in a Charleston estate, traced through six women's annotations across a hundred and twenty years to a single Charleston kitchen.
An Online-Only Decorative Arts Sale, Observed
Three days of bidding on a regional auction house's online sale, where the lot numbers run to twelve hundred and the room is a webcam.
The Bench That Pays for Itself: One Restorer's Twenty-Year Investment
A custom-built oak bench in a Vermont workshop took six months to build and has lasted twenty-three years. The owner has worked out, roughly, how much it has earned per square inch.
An English Pembroke Table with a Split Leaf, Reglued and Refinished
A George III mahogany Pembroke table, c. 1785, came into a Hudson workshop with a leaf split along the grain and a finish that had been waxed for two centuries. The work of repairing it took eleven weeks.
The Quiet Archive of American Rural Photography
Outside Fayetteville, Arkansas, the retired schoolteacher Estelle Crane has spent twenty-six years assembling 11,200 anonymous American snapshots from rural life between 1910 and 1955.
A Decoy Carver on the Eastern Shore
Walter Brimm restores Susquehanna Flats and Chesapeake working decoys from a shed behind his house in Havre de Grace, Maryland. On a morning in June he refinishes a 1936 Madison Mitchell pintail.
The Silver Spoon Stamped Three Times
A George III silver dessert spoon with three sets of marks — Edinburgh assay, maker, and a tiny owner's mark added later — traced from a 1791 Edinburgh silversmith to a Glasgow merchant family and finally to a Glasgow charity shop.
Browse
Departments
Stay a while
Cleaning Gilded Frames Without Touching the Gold
A nineteenth-century water-gilded frame in a Chicago apartment, the difference between gilding and gilt paint, and why a soft brush is the entire toolkit.
A County Antique Fair in Northern Vermont
A Saturday at the Lamoille County Antique Show, where seventy dealers fill a 4-H barn and the trade is unmistakably local.
The Jeweller's Loupe and the Restorer's Eye
A ten-times loupe and forty years of looking through one: a Sheffield silversmith on the small lens that has shaped his trade.
Forty Years of Fountain Pens, One Collector in Portland
Lillian Yoshimoto of Portland, Oregon has assembled 814 fountain pens manufactured between 1888 and 1965. She uses about fifteen of them in regular rotation.
Irish Silver Marks: Dublin's Harp, Cork's Castle and Ship
A Dublin silver beaker dated 1796 came up at a small Galway auction last June, marked with the crowned harp of the Dublin assay office, a maker's mark JL for John Locker, and a small Hibernia figure that fixes its origin beyond doubt.
A Federal Tall-Case Clock from Coastal Connecticut, Re-Leathered and Re-Cased
A cherrywood tall-case clock signed Levi Hutchins, c. 1798, came into a Hudson workshop with a split case, a fatigued bellows leather, and a brass dial that had not been touched in eighty years.
A Silversmith Restorer in Sheffield Attercliffe
Oonagh Tindall works on Victorian and Edwardian silver from a small workshop in a former cutlery factory. On a Friday in May she repairs a damaged Walker and Hall tea service.
The Portrait Miniature in a Norfolk Attic
A watercolour-on-ivory portrait, three inches by two and a half, found in a biscuit tin in a Cromer attic, identified from a barely legible inscription as a 1798 likeness of a Norwich merchant's wife.
Masthead
Contributors
The Sunday note
A short letter every Sunday.
One piece we published, one we read elsewhere. No ads, no tracking.