The Restorers Library: "Victorian Homes of San Francisco"

The Restorer's Library is a series about books that will be great reference for those restoring a Victorian Home.

Victorian Homes of San Francisco is authored by Terry Way. It has been out a few years but I only recently discovered it. It is a treasure trove of photos of  the unique San Francisco style of ornamentation and is a must have reference for any one looking for insight into period exterior detailing.

A soft cover book it retails for 19.95 on Amazon, but if you don't mind buying a used copy you can pick one up for 10-12.00 on Ebay. There is not a Kindle version availale.

Antique-Of-The-Week: A Victorian Era tile fireplace surround

Antique-of-the-Week is a series dedicated to affordable antiques and materials for homeowners doing their own restorations who are on a tight budget.

This week we have a Victorian era White Tile fireplace surround. This surround is 42 1/2 x 42 and has a 30x30 inch opening. it could easily be modified to work in a smaller opening more details  and photos are here: Fireplace surround . We are happy to direct you in how to properly reinstall one of these as part of restoration or as  a new decorative fireplace application.

Price is 150.00 and we can arrange pickup in Indy or Cincinnati and we are happy to work with your shipper.. Please visit our website or contact me at victiques@gmail.com for more details.

Antique-of-the-Week : A great 4 globe Chandelier

Antique Lighting is getting harder to find and when you do its terribly expensive and the reproduction stuff is well out of reach of the average homeowner.

Occaisionally we come across decent lighting that needs on minor work. So if you want one of those nice 4 globe chandeliers without the 350-375 dollar price tag, here is your opportunity, but you better hurry these do not last long.

Today's antique of the week is a decent 1910-1920's era 4 light chandelier. This would be appropriate in a later victorian home,or  aa arts and crafts era home. It needs rewiring and a little polish but its overall in good shape and the globes look new.

Offered at only 125.00, this will go fast so contact us at victiques@gmail.com or more details are here: Victorian Antiquities and Design

Antique of the week- A very special sale

Antique of the week is aimed at showcasing affordable pieces for the home restorer who has probably already spent more on restoration than they ever expected to.

This week, for the Holidays, we are offering a very special sale to our blog readers. We just got these in and they are very hard to find, a PAIR of matching Empire Flame Mahogany Settees. Circa 1860 these are perfect for any Victorian home.

These are offered on our website Victorian-Antiquities   for a very reasonable 1250.00 (dealer have charged as much as 1800-2400 for a matched set like this.) BUT,  for our Blog readers you can buy this rare Pair of matching Parlor Settees, for ONLY 750.00! a Five Hundred dollar savings! just contact us and mention you saw this on Antique-of-the-week.

Need this in a different color? We offer very affordable upholstery services!

And for our loyal readers, you can take 20 percent off on ANY item in our inventory! Sale ends December 17th.

Ultimate Steampunk Holiday Gifts

Ok if you are the typical Victorian collector type there is always a  dilemma. You have to have 'stuff', you know those pesky modern conveniences that we really can't live without...though sometimes we would like too. To the rescue comes the Steampunk movement. If you don't know what "Steampunk" is its sort of a retro, gadget, Jules Vern's 20,000 leagues under the sea sort of look. Not Victorian, but Victorian inspired.

This is just impressive, a wood cased LCD Monitor with wireless keypad and mouse for your PC. Price is  1459.00 from Woodguy32 on Esty. FYI he has lots of other cool gadget items too Old Time Computer

Maybe you have an iphone, but who wants to just leave it lying around? Well maybe this Docking station is the answer. Price 359.00 from Freeland Studio, more info here freelandstudios

In fact with the plethora of skins and cases and accessories for Iphone and Ipad, prices vary from a low of 20.00 to 200.00. on Ebay and Esty

Antique of the week: A rare music book

Published in 1886 'The improved Easy Method Parlor Organ" published by Estey & Camp of St Louis and Chicago provides its readers with instruction on the proper method to play the Pump Organ, which , as we all know was considerd to be an essential skill of the well mannered and refined individual of the day.

The book has an ownership notation ' Annie Rapps book December 12th 1892 on the inside cover. Over all book is in good condition though the binding fabric is worn.

This would be a great  table book for your parlor of as a display piece if you own a pump organ. It actially is a great resouce if you want to learn how to actually play a pump organ as well.

This 100 Page book sold for the princely sum of 1.50 cents when new. Today it will cost you 25.00 and we can ship it media mail for slight extra charge. Contact me for particulars.

Antique-of-the-Week is a recurring series where we present antiques of the victorian era.

Polychomed light restoration.

I recently completed a fun project which I thought might be of interest to my readers since I know not all of you are mired in Victorian decor. We picked this piece up several years ago on a buying trip through the south

Now it might surprise you that I would buy Art Deco but actually when I first started collecting (back in the 1980’s) I started with art deco. The good stuff, not the 1950-60’s stuff passed off as Deco today. We chose to buy this price because it was good piece, nice design and the polychoming made it more unique that the average light fixture.

Normally, you find these in a basic bronze finish, so the polychome paint job made all the difference. These older fixtures often have issues like cracks. Those can be filled by use of ‘liquid weld’ which is a high temperature filler that you can sand if need be but it bonds well to metal and I find works well with these old fixtures. This particular fixture was ok in that regard but the paint was cracked and faded. A common mistake people make is using the wrong paint. You can’t use latexes. It won’t bond to the original paint and remember this is a light fixture, which means it’s exposed to heat. And the bulb face down, which means the heat rises. I use enamels for this kind of work. You can find them at hobby store. Even model car paints will work if you can find the right colors, or know how to mix them.

Now if you want to polychome a fixture that has not been painted you can prime it with the appropriate primer for the paint you are using. Actually red auto primer is a good base color if you are going with a gold finish. For this one colors were dictated by the original colors which I matched but if you are starting from scratch I recommend researching polychomed fixtures to see the appropriate color combinations used.

The Artful Interior: Stencilling in the Victorian Era

Trade magazines often featured stencil designs like these fora "proper upscale artistic ceiling",

Once upon a time every major city has several; "stencil artisans", usually members of the Painter and Stencillers Guild. The Victorian era also was the first time when their were "decorators" whom one turned the house over to to elaborately stylize...that is if you were wealthy or upper middle class. Stencilling, at least in the Victorian era, typically wasn't cheap. While a roll of wallpaper might cost 3-5 cents a gallon of paint could cost 75 cents.

Beyond mere painting, this ceiling rises to artform

Unlike today when we think nothing of going to the home improvement store for a gallon of paint and doing it ourselves, most Victorians would not do such work and painting was a hired task. And while some 'painters' were also did stencils, the art of stencilling was usually a specialized task, reserved for someone with experience.

Tens of thousands of homes were artfully stencilled during the Victorian era yet so few exist today. Or, as in the case of our home, hidden from view. Since Milkpaint was the prefferred choice of the stencil artisan, unless it had been shellaced or a lowered ceiling put in ( often with courthouses or government buildings) finding them is rare indeed though there are still some out there.

These elaborate stencils are almost gone now, as is the  Endangered house they sit in in Missouri, The only records will be the photos I, and other preservationists took, almost a decade ago.

Makes you want to discretely scrape the paint off your old house ceiling or wall to see if such a treasure exists in your home, doesn't it?

West Palm Beach must pay 121K for illegal demo of Historic home

They say you "Can't fight city Hall", but the Roberts family did and were awarded 121,000.00 by a court because the city of West Palm Beach Illegally demolished their home.

The Roberts had inherited the house from a family member and rented it out and intended to hold it to pass down in their family. The house was built in the 1920's and was located in the Freshwater Lakes Histroic district.

After a minor fire in 2002 , the Roberts pulled the necessary permits, but needed one more from the Historic Commision which had issued a Do not Demo order, while the Roberts were obtaining that the city building Director said the house was unsafe and ordered it torn down. The city claimed they followed procedure and notified the Roberts but the Roberts went to Court and ultimately won 121,000 PLUS interest for the illegal demolition.

While preservationists mourn the loss of the house , the action of the court it sends a clear message to cities across the country that city officials can not skirt procedures when demolishing private property.

Victorian Interior Design: Stereoscope cards provide a look back

Note the Belter style chair in the forground and the large chandelier in what was a large double parlor

The Steroscope was a  popular form of "entertainment" in the Victorian era. Often erroniously called a stereopticon which actualy projected an image by use of a light sourse (like a candle), the stereoscope was used to view stereocards which were essentially two of the same image and when vied through the viewer gave a 3d appearance. They were wildly popular and often when Victorians entertained, ladies would retreat to the lady's parlor and view images of far away places.



Here we see a more middle class parlor. Note the hanging rail with vine garland draped on the wire. This was a popular trearment

 There were hundreds of manufacturers of these cards and viewers, but like most things as technology progressed,  we were entertained by other means and today original stereoscopes bring a nice price. There are reproductions made now.

A very high end  'mansion' interior view. Note the ceiling stencilling, higher end channdelier and drapery treatments.

That is a good thing since stereocards are relatively plentiful and often can be found at your local antique mall for few dollars each although rare images can fetch top dollar.These Stereocards provide a rare look at victorian period design however and we can see how they actually decorated. The next time you are at your favorite antique shop or mall you might want to peruse that stack of cards over in the corner as you might find a treasure or two that can help you get that "period look"