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| Massive Kutani vase that needed a lot of love. |
Hello all. 2017 has been a very strange start for the restoration business. A bit of a slow beginning for all within the antiques trade in Melbourne. A lot of trade that I do comes from auction houses based within Victoria, high turn over equals high breakage. From January through to March the majority of these auction houses are closed, thus leaving me (and a few others) floundering about looking for scraps of work. Thankfully I have had the opportunity to develop another network over the years. Made up of people that trade at the trash and treasure markets and shops, even a few pawn brokers have stepped up and contacted me, just enough to keep me in two minute noodles and glue.
Apart from all that, I have moved into authentication and valuations as well. Extremely terrifying field for the integrity factor. I'm loving the forensics of this area and all of its details and the more you work in this specific field, the more shocked you become upon finding the amount of fakes that are in the market. A few hints for all. Ebay is flooded with fakes, probably a good 80% of the stock is highly questionable. Auction houses in Melbourne are also a dumping ground for questionable products as well, even the National Gallery of Victoria Colombian collection has a few surprises in it.
Just because someone says it's from 200 BC does not make it so. Ask for papers and provenance. Get tests done, use a UV torch at auctions (shows restorations in a jiffy) and just look at the piece carefully. If it doesn't feel or look right, good chance it probably isn't.
Have some photos.....
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| Cleaning an oil painting. Top right corner of this picture has been cleaned. If you hang paintings above fire places, well..... |
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| Moore piece. Hundreds of damaged petals. |
Anyways, good luck on finding your dream pieces where ever you're looking for them, I hope my advice gave a little bit more of an insight for your purchases in the future. Good luck. Thanks for dropping by again.
