[AT] Was Serious Restoration Now philosophy

[George Willer]

Larry,

As I think you know, I've also restored a few instruments, including parlor 
organs... as I call melodeons.  I try to use original materials and 
techniques.  Someone had tried to restore the reproducing piano using modern 
glue, making the valve bodies junk.  (they can't be taken apart without 
destroying the wood)  I had to make all the tooling to manufacture new valve 
bodies.  You can bet I only use hide glue as the originals should have been 
so that they can be rebuilt in the future.

Look here for a tour of some of the restorations:
http://members.toast.net/gwill/music.html

I disagree with your daughter in one respect... all the instruments should 
play as intended.

Yes, each of the Edisons have their own copy of 'the Preacher and the Bear'.

George Willer

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry D. Goss" <rlgoss at evansville.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:48 AM
Subject: RE: [AT] Was Serious Restoration Now philosophy


>
>>From a historic preservation standpoint, one important factor is to
> document what you've done, so someone in the furture can tell what's
> original, what isn't, so that there isn't a creep throughout history of
> what actually happened.
>
>>There's some bad parts being produced these days, and some good parts.
> Maybe the best way is to keep your receipts, show what's been done with
> the tractor, and pass it along to new owners. Have a display board that
> you show with.
>
> ---------
>
> Guy and Spencer -
>
> A number of years ago, I "restored" a melodeon for a local museum.  This
> is a compact reed organ musical instrument.  I completely disassembled
> the mechanism, glued the case back together (with modern glue), replaced
> the bellows with modern rubber bellows cloth, and replaced a number of
> broken and missing wooden pieces so that the instrument was playable
> again.  The modern pieces didn't show without taking the instrument
> apart again.  My daughter (a trained historic preservationist) was
> absolutely shocked and aghast at what I did.  In her words, "Daddy, the
> idea behind a museum is to PRESERVE the object, not to RESTORE it."
>
> One of the important items that collectors and appraisers in the
> antiques and collectibles industry look for is a provenance.  That's the
> history of ownership, modification, and repair.  Keeping a paper trail
> of receipts and stepwise photos of our tractor restorations is one way
> of doing that documentation.  I fully expect that a provenance will
> become more commonplace among us as old iron comes to maturity as a
> hobby and avocation.  Watch a few episodes of "Antiques Road Show" to
> see what they're doing with the provenance.
>
> On the good part/bad part issue, not every replacement part that is
> available today is identical to the original parts that were on a
> tractor when it was new.  There can be a number of reasons for this
> including a change in vendors, a change in manufacturing techniques, the
> redesign of a part to correct original flaws, and a whole host of other
> reasons.  There's always a possibility that a replacement part which has
> its number changed from when the tractor was new has had a modification
> to it that makes it "less than satisfactory" in an old tractor.  That's
> one of the reasons why NOS parts are so nice to find.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Larry
>
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