Department
Care
Cleaning silver without abrasion, waxing oak, re-caning a chair, the right humidity for books.
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.
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.
Leather Book Bindings and the Red Rot Question
A 19th-century theological library in a Boston rectory, the powdery decay that conservators call red rot, and the four interventions that work.
Polishing Brass Without Stripping the Patina: A Ship's Clock from 1894
A Chelsea Clock Company eight-day ship's bell clock, brought back over five months by a Cape Cod horologist with rouge, a soft mop, and patience.
Humidity Control for a Small Private Library
A 2,800-volume private library in a converted New Hampshire schoolhouse, a hygrometer logbook since 2018, and the case against the basement.
Re-Caning a Chair Seat by Hand: An Afternoon in Burlington
Hettie Vance has re-caned chairs in the same Vermont workshop since 1981. A 1925 American side chair and the seven-step pattern, observed.
Waxing Oak Furniture Seasonally: A Year on a Yorkshire Refectory Table
Four applications across twelve months on an 1830 oak refectory table, and what the wax does that the polyurethane never could.
Cleaning Silver Without Abrasion: The Conservator's Method
A Georgian sauceboat in a Hudson kitchen, an aluminum-foil bath, and the slow argument against the pink paste in the cupboard.