It helps to have some rules and guides to fall back on.

If a building were to gain significance the day after it was damaged in
an earthquake, we would face the challenge of preserving the damaged
building.  However, if the dresser/building were significant because of
its long and continued use in an abusive family...anywhere along the
continuum could be justified.

I find myself often making decisions based on what the strongest and
most readily explained supporting arguments and evidence indicate.

As to the Department.... if they accomplished nothing more than giving
intellectual refuge and structure, it would be enough.

-jc




On Dec 3, 2004, at 12:14 PM, Cuyler Page wrote:

>> I went
>> at it with a sledge and banged it around a bit to make it look like
>> authentic shit.
>
> Tried and true technique.   At Blackcreek Village historic town museum
> in
> Toronto, a carpenter working there was given the task of making a
> reproduction bedroom dresser.   He was really a furniture maker at
> heart,
> and put all his love into a finely crafted replica of perfection,
> dovetailed
> drawers, hand planed and carved details, the whole nine yards complete
> with
> hand-rubbed finish.   The day after he delivered it, he saw the display
> department crew dragging the dresser across the parking lot behind a
> pick-up
> truck "to make it look more authentic" as they told him.
>
> Funny how many have such a hard time stomaching the idea that these old
> things once looked shiny new, preferring the distance and mystery
> created by
> patina, even the modern artificial type of patina (or is that the
> wrong use
> of the word when applied to the pick-up truck technique?).
>
> cp in bc
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>