brunicardi family crest: boston british antiques
old england antiques
Restoration

Restoring our English antique furniture

It seems that the restoration process in America is typically very costly or that affordable restorers are lacking in ability. We've found there are to be many improvised restorers opting for easy shortcuts. Most pieces are hardly complete, with rustic, opaque looks, and no sign of bringing back the original beauty of the wood grain using traditional techniques. The waxy opacity of the finish is also implemented to hide defects of the wood that would be too costly or time consuming to be dealt with. No great loss for low quality woods, but it greatly devalues quality woods. Low end wax finish requires little to no experience, nor technique to achieve, is often synthetic, it spreads chemicals in the air, although sometimes odourless, needs frequent reapplying, is typically used only on low end furniture, and is rarely part of true restoration. This is why the correct restoring of a piece is so important with quality antiques, otherwise, you will find your piece to be devalued. This is widely evidenced with many waxed pieces found readily in the US.
Oil is another finish option. Though over time, it is permanently absorbed by the wood to which it's applied. This causes the wood to deepen, often to almost black, making the natural grain and beauty of the wood unrecognizable. This technique was traditionally used in England prior to the discovery of shellac. Today, furniture oil is used to nourish wood, and avoid excess drying. This should not be used, of course, over today's commonly used, low quality, synthetic, polyurethane finishes, because it won't be absorbed by the glass-like finish, and leave behind oily spots. Our pieces have always been restored to their original beauty, keeping with the historical integrity of the piece while adding value, using traditional hand rubbed shellac polish, as was typically used after it's discovery in England in the late 1700s. This is a difficult, yet much more sophisticated finish, that lasts for years with little maintenance. Shellac always allows woods to breathe keeping their grains alive in colour, particularly in fine antiques made of quality woods, such as rosewood, walnut, mahogany, satinwood, and oak, to name a few. The original hand rubbed technique of shellac polishing is rarely used by many restorers, as they find these techniques to be time consuming, difficult, and are betting on the fact that most consumers can be easily mislead into believing that antiques should be left unrestored. This is not the case for us. We would rather teach our clients the historical and monetary value of true and proper restoration, than make a quick buck. We believe this gains the trust of our clients, and stands us out amongst the rest. We are lucky to have qualified, experienced Italian restorers that have worked for us in Italy for almost 30 years, and are able to pass this quality off to you, our clients.
Antiques should be restored and refinished, but only in the proper way, to make them a good long term investment and a lifelong pleasure.
Our ultimate hope is that our pieces bring joy and comfort to your home everyday.

Based on almost 30 years of experience in the antiques' business and on commonly used materials.

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Our inventory of authentic English antiques

  • chests of drawers
  • dining tables
  • chairs
  • stools
  • bookcases
  • bureaux or bureaus
  • cakestands
  • wall mirrors
  • plantstands
  • hallstands
  • mirrors
  • sets of chairs
  • settees
  • occasional tables
  • piano stools
  • corner cupboards
  • sideboards
  • chiffoniers
  • sidecabinets
  • writing tables
  • wall mirrors
  • hat and coat stands
  • stickstands
  • display cabinets
  • washstands
  • china display cabinets
  • tea trolleys
  • nests of tables
  • nesting tables
  • camp beds
  • worktables
  • workboxes
  • chests
  • center tables
  • bureau bookcases
  • music cabinets
  • suite
  • card table
  • centre tables
  • bedside cabinets
  • gateleg tables
  • coffee tables
  • bedside cupboards
  • sideboards
  • bedstands
  • bed tables
  • shelves
  • dressers
  • dressing chests
  • bedside tables
  • end tables
  • dressing tables
  • torcheres
  • lampstands
  • dressing stools
  • consol tables
  • lampstands
  • library steps
  • metamorphic chairs
  • wall cabinets
  • beds
  • consolle tables
  • filing cabinets
  • office furniture
  • consolle
Historical periods of our antique furniture:
  • victorian, our favourite, functionality, elegance, great materials
  • edwardian, very elegant, often georgian inspired
  • art deco, transitional antiques, not modern, not antique, but stylish and popular
  • late victorian, great variety of styles
  • georgian, antique, elegant, rare
  • arts & crafts, great materials, simple, stylish
  • art nouveau, beautiful and romantic
  • 1900s, last period for quality handmade furniture, last antiques

Typical woods of our antique pieces:
  • mahogany
  • beech
  • oak
  • walnut
  • rosewood
  • satinwood
Finishing methods used for restoration:
  • shellac, hand polished (hardest, but best option to add value to the piece)
  • wax, polished (easier than shellac, but time consuming and not appropriate for English antiques)
  • shellac on wax (easier than just plain shellac, more appropriate than just wax, but not the greatest value)
  • wax on shellac (easy, therefore cheap, reduces value of the piece)
  • satinated shellac (easier than polished, easy to repolish appropriately, good temp solution, doesn't reduce potential value)
  • satinated wax (easy even with no experience, but subtracts value even if product for antiques)
  • NO synthetic materials (they seriously affect the value of antiques and are costly and messy to remove)
  • NO oils (almost irreversible when absorbed, therefore damaging almost all antiques of any wood)
Please note that the historically correct finish for English antiques dating from the 1700s is French polish with shellac only, rubbed in and on the wood exclusively by hand, no wax, no oils.
These would be detrimental to the aesthetics and real value of the piece. However, we can restore and refinish any piece to suit the taste and requirements of our clients, because in the end, what counts is customer satisfaction.
We will provide all the advice that we believe is useful, and we will make available all our knowledge, based on decades of experience and studies.

Origin, where we directly select and acquire our antiques:
  • England
  • Scotland
  • Wales
Where the restoration process occurs:
  • Tuscany, Italy
Destination, where we proudly present our refinished antiques:
  • Boston, MA, USA
  • ...and next NH, USA
*albionic* English Late Victorian octagonal occasional table on turned legs with undertier. No woodworm and no rot. Hand finished with wax. Note: Not our typical finish, since we prefer to use hand rubbed shellac instead. The piece can still be french polished with shellac. *albionic* English Late Victorian piano stool with music sheet compartment under seat. With turned handles and legs. No woodworm and no rot. Reupholstered and hand polished with shellac. Note: The finish is called french polish. *albionic* English Edwardian bureau/secretaire desk above 3 drawers on claw on ball feet. Pigeonhole interior. Antique locks to drawers and top. No woodworm and no rot. Hand polished with shellac. Note: french polishing is the historically correct way of refinishing good english antiques. *albionic* English Edwardian corner table. A drop flap to the front folds up to make the table square and is supported by a gateleg action leg. No woodworm and no rot. Hand polished with shellac. Note: very rare authentic antique piece. *albionic* English Victorian gateleg table on turned legs. Drop flaps on either side. Solid mahogany. No woodworm and no rot. Hand polished with shellac. Note: Shellac is applied by hand rubbing a cloth previously dipped in liquid shellac. *albionic* English Victorian chest of 5 drawers with wooden knobs. All antique locks in place and functional. Brass escutcheons. No woodworm and no rot. Hand polished with shellac. Note: restoring an antique with traditional techniques including polishing with shellac, is the only way to add value to an fine original English antique. *albionic* So British antiques or English antiques, particularly for antique furniture, is almost a synonym, and recalls the idea of quality, elegance, value and beauty! Note: English antiques appreciate more and faster if finely and carefully restored, and above all, correctly restored and refinished. *albionic* Some US pieces closely resemble and obviously were inspired by the British antiques style. Even some furniture of northern France, where the British influence was strong, was similar in many ways, as only a few miles across the Channel was the English soil. It was also the gateway for the British travellers and the British goods to the rest of continental Europe. *albionic* Some pieces from Northern Europe too show some British influence. *albionic* And then there was the Empire, where countries such as Australia, India, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Caraibic Isles, the Mediterranean, the pacific islands and wherever the British were influential, had furniture that often reflected the English style. *albionic* Often British design would inspire the local craftsmanship in a stylish combination. Obviously the colonials would commission many pieces some of which were brought back to the homeland, Great Britain. *albionic* The British antiques style all around is pretty unique and typical, easy to recognize and inspirational for those cabinet makers and furniture designers who had some links with England. *albionic* The style of antique pieces of furniture would occasionally vary, as some pieces were typical of a place, area or a region. They were often called in a way to remember where the first ones were crafted, such as Welsh dressers, Scotch chests, Sheffield, Sutherland tables, etc, although they were made all around the country as they became popular, copying and getting the inspiration from the originals. *albionic* As a matter of fact they are from all over the United Kingdom, or at least Great Britain, sometimes from the former British colonies. To give you a better idea Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales put together. For the UK you need to add Northern Ireland and the colonies. Nevertheless antiques in Britain were usually of a similar style throughout the country, therefore saying British antiques rather than English antiques would be more accurate. *albionic* Known both as English antiques and as British antiques at oldenglandantiques.com the antiques we present are genuinely English and imported from England, UK.