Antiques need special care to retain their value. If your antiques have any issues regarding condition, its value declines. You should always keep a check on your antiques’ condition especially when planning to resell in future. Every piece of antique needs special care and treatment to increase its value, usability and appearance. This article presents you basic tips on taking care of your antiques.
Caring for antique furniture
Following are tips on how to care for antique furniture:
- Dust antique furniture often using a piece of soft cloth.
- Antique furniture should be polished once once/ two a year. After applying the polish, leave it overnight for drying.
- Avoid using a spray polish as it contains silicon that builds a surface that is sticky. Further, this can lead to depletion of natural oils in the wood.
- Make sure to check on temperature as too much humidity can damage the wood. Extreme temperature changes also damage the veneer of the furniture. This mainly occurs when transporting furniture from one climate to another climate.
- See to it that your antique furniture is not exposed to sunlight, as it has many damaging effects on antiques like it can dry out wood, fades away the polish, deteriorates the fabrics integrity etc.
- On sunny days, keep the curtains of the room drawn to avoid too much sunlight, which can damage the furniture.
- If there is a requirement for repairing the damage, choose a reputable shop.
Caring for antique wall art
Following tips can help you in caring for antique wall art:
- Paintings should be cleaned regularly with a soft muslin cloth for maintaining its lustre.
- Avoid using wet cloth to clean antique painting.
- Make sure that these antique paintings are not placed near fireplaces or near the window where direct sunlight falls as this can fade away the color, especially if they are oil paints.
- When you carry painting for cleaning or for some other reason, make sure that you don’t hold on top edge of the frame. Lifting the painting from the outer edges or from underneath is a better way.
- Keep in mind the environmental functions, when trying to store an antique painting.
- When storing many paintings together, make sure that you place pads between and under them.
Caring for antique collectibles
Following are some tips to care for antique collectibles:
- Hold the antique item by its main part of the body. Do not lift or hold antique collectibles by its handle, as it is the weakest point. Often there is a damage to the handle which is not seen, lifting or holding the handle can cause further damage or can destroy the entire item.
- Never use harsh cleaners to clean the antiques.
- If antique collectibles are very dirty, use a sponge to clean gently.
- Make sure that you don’t use any kind of tape on the antique collectibles, because peeling it off can remove gilding or enamel from the surface of the paintings.
It is sensible to test any cleaning method first on an unseen area as every antique is different from each other.