Archive for February, 2010

Why antiques? Why do people choose to fill and adorn their homes with antique furniture and décor?

Collecting antiques is a matter of personal style and preference. People collect different antique pieces for different reasons. Many of these people think that having an antique collection is a worthwhile hobby, and these approach it with the passion they think their hobby deserves. They go hunting for pieces in specialty stores, surf for pieces on eBay and other online shops, and frequent auctions for pieces they desire. Collecting antiques is a matter of personal style and preference.

But how could anyone not love or even learn to appreciate an antique, be it a piece of furniture, a figurine, a jewel, or a dinner plate? Antiques may be old, as the term so obviously suggests, but they carry with them an innate beauty and charm that is uniquely theirs. Antique furniture and other pieces illustrate the distinct and exquisite design that is prevalent in the period from which the piece in question specifically comes from. Each design is one of a kind in its own, and each tells a story of how things were way back then, or at least leaves behind a clue that should get to work the imagination of whoever holds the piece at present.

Antique furniture and other pieces open windows to the past. When you look at your reflection at an antique gilded mirror, can you not imagine a young matron being dressed by her lady’s maid for a ball in front of that same mirror a couple of centuries back? When you store your linens in that antique oaken chest, can you not imagine a young, hopeful girl storing away just-finished pieces of the trousseau she has sewn for herself for the day she will become a bride?

Each piece of antique furniture has a story to tell, and each story tells us of how things were back then and how far we have come in the history of our civilization. Each piece is beautiful in itself and should, therefore, be cherished.

We at Brownrigg @Home are here to help people cherish the beauty of the past by helping them appreciate the beauty of antiques.

• 18″x18″ Square Pillow
• Hand Hooked/90 Line Construction
• Velveteen Backing
• 15″ zipper for eacy access and removal of polyester fiber insert

Product Description
Susan Branch designed Vintage Home Pillow to coordinate with her Vintage Home Rug and Vintage Home Chair Pad. The 18″x18″ size is just perfect whether you want to leave it out as a decorative item, but also large enough to place under your head for a little cat nap.
The zipper backing makes it very easy to remove the insert for cleaning…. More >>

Susan Branch- Vintage Home – Pillow

Product Description
Homeowners can learn how to identify and economically add improvements to older homes without getting bogged down in never-ending repairs. This comprehensive guide teaches readers how to fix roofs, doors, windows, structural problems, plumbing and bathrooms for the least amount of money and the greatest reward…. More >>

Renovating and Restyling Vintage Homes

UK Antique furniture – Decorative Antiques Petworth – Period Oak Antique Furniture

Period Oak of petworth specialising in early oak and country antiques country furniture for sales and finding services based in uk and supplying�the world from 17th century to 19th century. Our services highlights mainly on English Antique oak and Country Furniture, Metalware and Treen.

Check our showroom where you can find a wide range of period antiques and decorative items which gives a good idea for our customers that what kind of items we are looking for. Jack and Jackie Simonini, a husband and wife partnership, have specialised in early English oak and country furniture for almost 20 years. Originally from the Lake District they have moved to Petworth.

The stock is sourced from all over the United Kingdom and includes antique oak tables, antique oak dressers, antique oak coffers,antique chairs, cupboards,antique clocks, antique chests, carving and

much more decorative period oak and country furniture.

If you have seen an item on our website and wonder how much it would cost to ship to your location, we can get you a quotation. We can organise shipping to any part of the world. By contacting our list of specialist antique and fine art shippers, we obtain the best possible price for our customers.

2 rooms of showroom show a wide range of period antiques and decorative items.This gives a good idea of the kind of items we stock but some items may have already been sold. We offer a fast antique sold product which can help customers to know our market demand. We can organise shipping to any part of the world.

To enquire particular antique items please contact us in our lovely town of Petworth, UK.

Vintage posters have major contribution in the progression of the world of advertising and the graphic design. The posters depicting intricate artworks of yesteryears are still loved, and for many, synonyms to be the objects of great pride. These posters, representing characters and symbols from the past cultures and way of living, carry a history of its own. Some posters even look in perfect symmetry to modern world’s lifestyle and the prevailing culture.

The Journey of Vintage Poster:

The journey of vintage poster is as interesting as they themselves are. In the early times, artists used to paint artwork in watercolor (or gouache) as per the requirements of the advertising agencies. If advertising agencies accepted the original artworks, they were further sent for creating lithographic prints. After printing of this selected artwork, they were circulated and used as the advertising poster.

For a long-time, vintage poster brought life and meaning to advertisement campaigns and in creating awareness about various products and services.

Collectors’ Pride:

Vintage posters have always been a popular item for collection. However, their in-depth meaning and beauty have inspired interior designers to use them on much wider scale. Vintage posters have long been improving the look of the surrounding of many offices, corporate setup and homes.

Choose anything from classic sports posters, propaganda posters, liquor advertising posters, transportation posters, industrial age posters, jazz club to café posters to make the surrounding attractive. If you want to add entertainment themes to your ambience, vintage posters on actors, artists or sportsmen of the past can be of exact use.

Vintage Posters – telling the Story on your behalf

Want to improve your home décor? Choose from a large variety of vintage posters available- before putting them into your home and office, select the one that matches your thought. Vintage posters are highly appealing and make strong statement about their owner.

You may not be able to realize a dream of having a fleet of fully restored vintage cars, but you can be able to have the next best thing, a collection of vintage car models. As a vintage car enthusiast, hobbyists would most likely want to have a collection of their own, and if possible, this would be a collection of real vintage cars. But not all of us have buildings named after us, nor do we have a software empire that can finance such a huge enterprise, so having vintage car models would be closer to the real thing.

Having a collection of vintage car models will allow you to appreciate more your passion for vintage cars. This is because you will be able to treasure them and show them off and at the same time, learn more about them along the way. They are also great as decorations to a home. You have to understand though that because they are only models, it doesn’t mean that they don’t cost much.

In fact, some vintage car models are also vintages on their own right. Some are from the same era as the cars they are replicating and can command a considerable amount of money. If they are in an exceptional state or in mint condition, these models can cost thousands of dollars. With that price, you wouldn’t think of them as mere toys.

Many of these vintage car models are made from die cast metal. Plastic models were unheard of in those days and even know, if a model is in limited edition, they are generally made from metal to allow them to last longer. This way, they can be worth something in the future. Also, the price of the model is not just based on how old it is and how good the condition it is in. Another consideration would be the design and the detailing of the model.

There are vintage car models that are highly detailed and have different movable parts attached together. Since they are small, they can be hard to build and has to be manually produced. These details provide an intricate authenticity to the model and they are scaled exactly to the proportions of the car so you can have a general idea of what they really look like in their true to life size. The more detailed the model is, the higher the price it can command.

Usually, vintage car models can be found in hobby stores and collectible stores. If you don’t have one in your area, you may have a hard time making your collection grow. This is the old fashioned way of looking for vintage car models. So that you can specifically find a particular vintage car model, all you need to do is log on to the internet and find the numerous collectibles and hobby retail websites. There you will be able to get good deals and discounts and be also able to find exactly what you want.

Auction sites are good sources for these collectibles. Usually, there are collectors who sell their vintage car models as well. You can do a thorough search for the different vintage car models and you don’t even have to leave your home or office. Better yet, join clubs and forum on the internet and be always informed.

The question of whether traditional upholsterers should use tacks or staples when re-upholstering antique furniture is frequently and, often, fiercely debated. So what are the two sides of this argument?

Those who are solidly in the Tack Camp argue that all re-upholstery should be authentic and true to the history of the piece of furniture.  They argue that staples are a modern invention and should not be used on old pieces of furniture, as to do so results in an unhappy blend of different eras.  Some even maintain that using staples will ruin the furniture.  To them staples are seen at best as unthinkable, at worst as almost sacrilegious.

Those upholsterers who are in the Staple Camp maintain that one of the foremost reasons for using staples is to protect the wooden frames of the furniture, as staples cause much less damage to the frames.  Without a doubt tacks create a much larger hole in the wood than do staples.  Staples make two little holes.  The pro staplers also maintain that putting in a staple is one hit to the furniture and the staple is home, where a tack require several hammer hits to knock it home.  For fragile pieces of furniture the less hitting the better.  It is also claimed that because the staple gun is placed in position before the staple is fired, there is no damage to the show wood.

I think that both sides of this argument have merit and that the ideal situation is a happy blending of both tacks and staples.  In my work I do use both; though not always on the same piece of furniture.

Staples are in fact not all that modern.  The first patent for a stapler was granted on August 7, 1866 for a device called the Novelty Paper Fastner.  This device allowed a single staple to be loaded and it was used mainly to bind papers or books, but was also used on carpet, furniture and boxes.  However, the earliest record of staples is from France in the 18th century.  They were developed for the use of King Louis XIV of France and each staple bore his name!

Staples were not originally created specifically for use in upholstery, but the upholstery trade has a tradition of ‘borrowing’ materials from other trades.  For example Calico, which is a bleached cloth used frequently in upholstery.  Originally this was a fabric brought to the UK from Calicut, India by the East India Trading Company for use in the clothing trade.  Very quickly upholsterers saw the benefit of this cloth to their trade and so Calico became a fundamental part of upholstery.

In practical terms often a long-nosed staple gun will successfully place a staple in a very tight area where a tack and hammer just won’t work.  Recently I was asked to re-upholster a Victorian chair whose tacking rail was in such poor condition that the only answer was to use staples or else have the tacking rail rebuilt.

One drawback of staples is that they tend to be a nuisance to remove when stripping off a piece of furniture. They often snap leaving a small piece of staple left in the furniture.  This though can be hammered flat which will cause no ill effect.  Usually the staples can be removed by hand with a staple remover and a pair of pliers.  This is beneficial to the frame since there is no banging as there is when using a ripping chisel and mallet to remove old tacks.  If you are careful about the placement of the staples then is possible to remove them without causing  any damage to the show wood.

Tacks still have a very worthwhile place in the upholstery trade.  I think that it is right to try to use tacks on very old and / significant pieces of furniture.

From a commercial point of view though staples greatly speed up an upholsterer’s job and at the end of the day we are running a business.  If it came down to making a choice, I would rather use staples than reduce the quality of my stuffing or webbing.

One final point to consider is that when re-upholstering any piece of furniture we should not try to hide the fact that the work has been done in the 21st century. After all this is another phase of the furniture’s life and in time it will also become part of its history.