An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

QUESTION: What’s the best way to maintain antique furniture? When I see pieces at antique shows, they always look so beautiful. Is there some trick to making them look that way? Can you tell me the best way to maintain the pieces I have? While I have some older ones from the early 19th century, most are from the mid to late 19th century.

ANSWER: You’ve asked about two different procedures. The first is all about restoration while the second is about conservation.

Generally, restoring pieces made before 1830 affects their value. If a piece is more than 60 percent restored, it drastically loses value. Refinishing these early pieces destroys their patina. On the other hand, pieces made after 1830 usually benefit from restoration. The 60-percent rule doesn’t apply to them.

Restoration can range from minor repairs to a complete professional refinishing. With improvements in materials and finishes, a person can do some simple refinishing at home. However, for more complex work, especially when a piece may have several layers of old paint that have to be removed, it’s a good idea to invest in the work of a professional furniture restorer.

Before attempting to refinish a piece of antique furniture, assess it’s overall condition. If the piece just looks dull and dingy, it’s possible it may just need a thorough cleaning. Cleaning wood can do wonders for it.

If there’s oily dirt or grease, such as may get on pieces in a kitchen, remove it with an old washcloth, soaked in a mild dish detergent and water solution and wrung out. Work on small area at a time and dry it immediately with a soft cloth. Always avoid using too much liquid directly on a piece’s surface.

An alternative is to use Murphy’s Oil Soap in spray form. Spray a little on the wood and wipe with a damp washcloth. For really grimy surfaces, use #0000 steel wool and Murphy’s, then wipe with a wet washcloth, and dry. Allow the piece to dry thoroughly for 24 hours before waxing. Wipe the surface with #0000 fine steel wool until smooth.

After a piece of furniture is cleaned, it can be freshened up using Wood Sheen, a rubbing oil stain and finish made by Minwax that combines tung oil with a coloring agent, available at most hardware stores and home centers. This product comes in a variety of wood stain colors to match most types of wood.  tra fine (four zero) steel wool. Wipe the surface again with a damp cloth. Apply a thin coat of Wood Sheen using an old sock and let it dry for an hour or two. Do not do this more than once every year or so.

An alternative to using Wood Sheen is to wax it with Minwax paste wax. This is a petroleum-based product that comes in both natural and dark shades for light and dark-stained furniture, respectively. The hard surface it produces can be dusted more easily and without the danger of scratching because its smoother. Waxing once or twice a year is sufficient for table tops and chair arms. For less used areas of furniture, such as chair legs and case pieces, wax only every four years.

Conservation of antique furniture is all about maintenance and keeping it clean. Avoid using any of the popular spray dusting helpers. These tend to leave a nasty buildup on furniture that’s hard to remove later on. Instead, use a soft cloth to gently wipe away the dust. You can also slightly dampen the cloth with liquid glass cleaner.

Avoid using any of the popular oil-based liquid furniture polishers. These leave an oily residue that attracts dust. Lemon oil is one of the worst because it doesn’t sink into the wood like commonly thought but lays on the surface acting as a dust magnet.

Be extra careful when cleaning any wood that has been gilded. The gilt is usually applied with a water-soluble adhesive which can be removed by detergent cleaners. To clean uneven or carved surfaces, use a soft-bristled brush or your vacuum cleaner with the brush attachment. Be careful not to hit the furniture in any way with the vacuum cleaner, itself.

Do not use feather dusters. They move the dust around and can scratch the surface.

Before using any cleaner on a piece’s surface, test an inconspicuous area towards the back first.

Try not to polish hardware while it’s attached to the furniture. The polish will damage the furniture’s finish. Instead, remove the hardware and polish separately, being sure to rinse or wipe it thoroughly before reattaching it to your pieces. If hardware cannot be removed, be sure to mask it from the furniture’s surface to prevent damage. For ornate hardware, use a cotton swab dipped in the detergent solution.

Do not polish ormolu, which really isn’t brass but bronze. Instead, wash it with a soft cloth soaked with a mild dish detergent.

If mold or mildew forms on a piece of antique furniture, dampen a soft cloth with a very mild bleach solution (two tablespoons of bleach to a quart of water) and wipe the affected area. Dry immediately with a soft cloth, then wax as stated above.

Heat dries out the wood of antique furniture, loosening joints. An interior should be kept at a comfortable level but not excessively hot in the winter. If the temperature must be kept higher, put pans of water around to humidify the air or use a humidifier. The air will be healthier, also.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about religious antiques in the special 2018 Holiday Edition, "The Art of the Sacred," online now.

19th Century Tupperware

QUESTION: I recently won a box lot at a local auction. Inside the box I found what looks like a cup with an attached saucer. It’s heavy and a bit crude. Can you tell me what it is?

ANSWER: What you have is a 19th-century grease lamp made of stoneware. Farmers used these lamps, fueled by animal fat, in their homes. They often threw away early, less refined versions, as better ones appeared on the market. 

Stoneware is one of the hardy perennials of the American antiques trade. Each year, auction houses, antiques shops, and flea markets sell thousands of pieces at prices from $25 to several thousand dollars. The record price stands at $15,000 for a rare 1773 stoneware inkstand. Only a handful of pieces fetch prices in that stratospheric range.

Stoneware is a heavy, hard pottery that resists odors and tastes and won’t absorb water. The first American stoneware appeared in the last half of the 18th century, and for more than 100 years people used stoneware vessels to store and transport foods and liquids. It was essentially the 19th-century version of Tupperware. When glass and metal containers came into common use, people stopped using it.

Generally, it’s difficult to date stoneware unless a piece has the name and town of the maker or the name of the company that used the vessel to hold its product stamped on the bottom. For this reason, many collectors like to buy pieces made in their areas. But stoneware that can be identified as the work of an early potter may be worth several hundred dollars. For example, a double-handled crock inscribed "Commeraw" sold for $800 because it was made by Thomas Commeraw, a New York City potter active from 1795 to 1820. At a Massachusetts auction, a jug with the initials J. F. sold for $600—it’s attributed to a 1790's Boston potter named Jonathan Fenton. Sometimes the initials on a piece belong not to the maker but to the original owner, which makes the piece attractive to collectors interested in genealogy.

As with many other antiques, age isn’t the main reason in determining the price of an object—its decorative qualities are far more important. An attractive late-19th-century jug will fetch more at auction than a homely Revolutionary-era piece. Most stoneware forms, such as jugs, crocks, jars, churns, and pitchers, are very simple and vary only slightly in shape and design. Decoration, if any, tends to be sparse. When a potter decorated his pieces, he often used simple floral, bird, or scroll motifs painted on the stoneware in three basic colors—blue, brown, or black. The most common stoneware style has a gray-glazed background with blue decoration. Such run-of-the-mill pieces, which represent about 90 percent of the stoneware available today, are generally worth less than $50.

Because many stoneware items look alike, the most valuable pieces are those with unusual or imaginative decoration. A rare form, such as your stoneware grease lamp, or an odd-sized piece, an exceptionally large crock, for example, can be worth several hundred to several thousand dollars.