I’ve seen this reported over and over on the Antiques Roadshow on PBS.
The most recent to catch my eye was a grand Federalist period hautbois. The piece was beautiful, had all original hardware, etc, and was a rare design of a famous Boston cabinet maker.
There was one piece which was uncleaned, that had been on the rear side of the broken pediment top, and had been held out just to show the difference. It was black with age and the finish had completely gone to open-wound blisters.
The price was given as $55,000 at auction, or $115,000 if it had never been cleaned.
But what would the buy have done? It would have been hideous if uncleaned, so of course he would have cleaned it at some point, and paid extra for the service.
Hey, I am no expert or anything remotely close, but I always learned that cleaning antiques and such will decrease the value because it can damage it. Cleaning can cause damage to certain dyes and paints used and other factors as well.
Metals and wood develop a patina with age. You know, it “looks” old. People who want old things value this. In the case of something that looks awful, it is still “original” which some folks value as much as their own children. Personally, if it looks like hell, I think something needs to be done, but I don’t own one single thing worth $115,000.
I read someplace (yes, I know that’s a lousy cite, but I really don’t remember where I read it!) that this is a question of fashion in antiques. Right now, the patina is valued fanatically and cleaning Grandma’s credenza could lose you many thousands of bucks. Used to be, the fashion was for restored antiqes and professional cleaning and repair would increase a piece’s value.
Mostly because people are buying the age & the original artists’ varnish which is very rare. When you clean that off you are taking part of the rarity with it.
I also saw that show thing about a year back. The woman’s jaw dropped when she heard them say that it was worth only $55k cleaned.
Suppose you had a plate & food that was on the Titantic
and you cleaned it. It would be worth a lot less.
It should be noted that depending on the type of antique and the type of dirt, cleaning can not effect, or even enhance, the value. If you drop your antique sterling silver saltcellar in the mud, it’s OK to rinse it in cold water
Having so said, the preceding posters are essentially correct; removing patina that is itself evidence of age, or original paint or varnish, can seriously impair value.
Gee, no responses so far along the lines of, “Because most people are idiots, and they irreparably damage the piece when they ham-handedly try to clean it.” Nothing a gun dealer hates more than a guy who reblues his own guns…
As someone who used to work for an ancient coin company, I would implore any coin collectors out there to NOT clean their coins: not only do you risk removing the patina, but many methods of cleaning coins scratch the surface of the coins. (If you for some reason really think your coin should be cleaned, consult a numismatist or dealer first)
Also, if you think you might ever sell said coins, DO NOT mount them in jewelry. Many (though probably not all) methods of mounting jewelry damage the edges of a coin.
This isn’t just a fashion, it comes from art conservation. In the past, conservators would “clean up” an object in attempt to put it back to original condition. But now, in most cases, it is now a standard technique to “conserve” rather than restore artworks, and antiques are no different. It is considered preferable to preserve the existing condition of an art object, stabilize it against further deterioration, but make NO visible changes to the object. Much of the art restoration business is spent undoing previous sloppy attempts at preservation. And technology always gets better, if you do something irreversable, you are preventing future preservation techniques from being applied.
I just love the Antiques Roadshow. I especially love seeing the faces of people who cleaned up some 17th century chest and are told they ruined its value. But even worse, some people even remove patina that was deliberately placed on an object by the artist. I recently saw a show where someone brought in an old Craftsman-style copper lamp, the lamps are highly collectible and would have brought maybe $75,000. But she cleaned off all the original patina and it was ruined, worth only something like 1/10th of what it would have been worth uncleaned.
BTW, If you like the PBS roadshow, try to find the BBC America channel on cable or DSS, and watch the original Antiques Roadshow. Aside from way too much pottery and silver, you’ll see much better antiques.
There’s cleaning, then there’s cleaning. Of course you can go over a piece of antique furniture and dust it. But you don’t want to remove the actual finish or outer layer of wood. When wood finishes age, they get a deep lustrous finish, something that can’t be duplicated. THAT’S what you’re paying for.
Original finishes are also good for another reason–they help prove that the piece is, in fact, an antique. Refinishing an antique is like tampering with evidence; you’ll always have some doubt as to whether the piece is a legitimate antique.
Not every antique should be left uncleaned, of course. You can clean fabrics, or treat leather covers on old books, and not affect their value.
Some antiques still should be cleaned and repaired for top value.
This includes dolls sub)[/sub] and teddy bears.
Mechanical banks and music boxes are not much valued if springs are missing or gears are stripped.
The expert in “Toy Story 2” who touched up the Woody doll, resewing popped seams and retouching scuffed hair, was well researched and showing the correct procedure.
I’ve always thought antique fanatics nuts when they go and buy a grundgy chair with the cushion in shreds and the wood so dingy and dirty that it bites, then refurbish the cloth, but leave the wood alone! So, you have this expensive chair, with an expensively restored cushion and black, grimy looking wood. Clean the wood to restore its original grain and luster and they shriek in horror and faint.
I absolutely dislike aged copper. I dislike these people slapping on expensive copper cupolas or domes and letting them turn dark and green, then virtually get ecstatic about it. I polish copper to bring out the rich ‘copper’ color of the metal, like good cooks do to copperware. Antique buffs would prefer you cut off a hand than polish the copper on that Tiffany lamp.
The more dingy and depressing it looks, the better they like it.
One man on the Antiques Roadshow had this nice little Oaken table, the finish was so aged that it was muddy brown. On the underside, it displayed the rich, honey color of the wood, which was lovely, and the owner was thinking of having the table cleaned professionally to bring out this beauty again, but the appraiser urged him not to, informing him that the vale would drop by at least 75%!
Not so fast! You shouldn’t replace any upholstry until you’ve had the object appraised. There was a woman on ARS that had a pair of chairs recovered, and was aghast to find out that the “ugly, tattered fabric” would have tripled the value of the chairs had she not removed it. “But it was ugly!” she gasped, “What am I supposed to do with a pair of ugly, raggedy chairs?” The appraiser gently told her that she should have just put them in a corner, and draped a throw over them if she found it that ugly, but the fabric had been origional, and no matter how ragged, would have made the chairs much more valuable.
Antiques Roadshow is forever showing someone who had an antique this-or-that and cleaned or repaired it to find out that the value was lessened by the act. In the real world, this isn’t necessarily how it works. Generally speaking, a highly skilled cleaner can increase the value of an object by cleaning it. Look at the world of art, a careful restoration of a painting will increase it’s value. Note the use of the words “skilled” and “careful”.
However, there is a cult of antiquedom that despises all cleaning and restoration. And, if present at an auction or sale, can drive up the price of an object.
Finally, I’m always amused when I see something like–“The price was given as $55,000 at auction, or $115,000 if it had never been cleaned.” How do they know what the price would be at auction if never cleaned? THe expert who made that statement prefers uncleaned antiques and unless there were at least two people in the audience who also did, then the price wouldn’t raise that high.
