[AT] Was Serious Restoration Now philosophy

[George Willer]

This message was enroute for 15:22.  No big deal, just a data point.

George

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Willer" <gwill at toast.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 7:35 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Was Serious Restoration Now philosophy


> 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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>
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