Preserving antique furniture in a precautionary way, requires simple expedients. These activities prevent the piece of furniture to get ruined and to reach the need of restoration, maybe with invasive and expensive interventions. To preserve antique furniture, it is not necessary to be experts or restorers but keep in consideration some aspects such as the place of exposition of the piece, the temperature or the daily cleaning.
Preserving antique furniture: temperatures and humidity
First of all, it is very important to give the correct location to an antique piece of furniture. Light, warmth, too much humidity or too dry air are factors that negatively affect the conservation of a piece of furniture. As a matter of fact, direct light bleaches the furniture’s surface, ruining its colour and lucidity; moreover, the warmth of light, together with high temperatures of the environment and dry air can cause cracks and lifting of the inlay-works. Even the humidity negatively affects the conservation of an antique piece of furniture, as in it can provoke the degradation of its wood.
How to clean an antique piece of furniture
In order to clean an antique piece of furniture, it is necessary to have greater care and attention in comparison with a modern piece of furniture. The use of aggressive products containing ammonia must be avoided, since they remove paint from the piece of furniture. It is good to clean the piece of antique furniture with a wool or cotton cloth and with some diluted virgin wax.
Anti-woodworm treatments
Once a year, it should be necessary to execute an anti-woodworm treatment to avoid infestations. To carry it out it is enough to impregnate the back, the shoulder, the inside flanks and the bottom of the drawers with an anti-woodworm liquid. If the piece of furniture already presents too many woodworms, it is necessary to contact a good restorer to carry out a disinfestation.
Sometimes is also helpful to let the pieces of antique furniture that you own to be checked by a trusted restorer to polish it a check the conservational state; put small and simple expedients into place, however, will allow you to keep your pieces of antique furniture without having to make more expensive and invasive restorations. The conservational state of an antique piece of furniture, moreover, affects in a very important way its economic value. As a matter of fact, a well-preserved piece of furniture will have a bigger value in comparison with an antique piece of furniture in a bad conservational state.
