At Ashby Interiors, our mission is simple – Buy, Restore, Sell.
STEP 2 – RESTORATION
RESTORATION (Noun) ‘the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition’
Everything that we sell has undergone some form of restoration.
In its lightest form, it could just be a good old wash and a clean. White opaline glass obviously has to be sparkling clean! We once collected some beautiful Art Deco Skyscraper lights from an old Coop store in the Lake District. They had been stored for decades in a loft where pigeons had carefully deposited layers of poop onto them. They were barely recognisable and needed overnight soaking before scrubbing to reach the beauty beneath.
Then there’s the big question of whether to polish brass or leave it with the dark aged patina. This really is a matter of personal taste. An aged brass gallery will just be cleaned and waxed. A polished brass or copper gallery will be machine polished using solid polishing soaps to regain the original high polish. We can lacquer the finished item to keep the polished finish.
Electrical rewiring. Of course, our customers want to buy antique lighting from us ready to install and this means new bulb holders, new cable and PAT testing for peace of mind. Martin buys all his electrical parts from the UK’s leading manufacturer of lighting components, all of which are certified to current BSEN ISO standards.
The missing piece of the jigsaw. The real bonus of restoring antique lighting is that over time, you will accumulate many spare parts. These can be single Holophane glass sections, brass hooks and finials. These tiny treasures will one day be the finishing touch to a piece that you are restoring. Without this missing piece, that Art Nouveau chandelier will still be sitting on the shelf…
Restoration of our antique lighting gives us a real sense of pride. Quite often an item has been stored away, hidden from view and is in quite a sad state. Of course, every restored item – whether its an antique banker’s lamp or an Art Deco pendant light is also a form of recycling. It’s a good thing to step away from the throwaway culture and to effectively reduce your carbon footprint.
Our workshop is crammed with hundreds of restoration projects. In fact, the current Corona Virus Lockdown situation has given us more time to work on some of the more complicated pieces. Keep an eye on the NEW STOCK PAGE of our online shop to see the latest items which have been restored. If there’s something specific you are looking for, get in touch, we may have it in our restoration queue and can bring it forward especially for you.
