 Music Stand (8831)
When I purchased my first music stand, the person I bought it from told me to unscrew the ferrule and put in a piece of sheet music in the diagonal slot and tighten the screw piece that holds it in place. The tripod comes out of the handle the legs are reversed and it holds the shaft and sheet music for playing, I was really excited to have such a clever cane. Dike hadn’t written Cane Curiosa, but when it was, I was pleased she hadn’t seen my cane, I really had something rare. Many years latter, I found my second one that was just like it, except inside the tripod legs was an elaborate mechanism that assembled into a stand to hold a whole book of sheet music. I now knew my first one was missing parts, and I had paid too much for something that was incomplete. I’ve thought about looking for someone to make a copy of the mechanism, as I now had the parts to make it from. As I thought about it, I decided it couldn’t be made so you couldn’t tell it was old.
Therefore it wouldn’t bring the money an original one is worth, which means you couldn’t get out of it what you put into it. Which bring us to our purpose. Should you have an antique restored? If you are going to keep it, it depends whether you have sentiment in it. I used to own a refinishing shop; people would come in to get a price on refinishing their family heirloom. Usually the price quoted was more than what the item was worth, because of today’s labor cost. I wasn’t surprised when they had the work done anyway, as that is what kept us in business, and sentiment was the name of our best customer. When someone came in with an item they bought at an auction or antique shop, and they heard the same price, it was usually no. Their name wasn’t sentiment.
Should I have it restored to sell it? The usual answer is no. If a dealer buys the item, he can usually get the item fixed wholesale, where the individual pays retail. Don’t put money into something to sell it, unless you can get more for it than the cost of restoration and what you can get for the piece as is.
Category: Gadget
Sub Category: City - Manufactured
Listed: 2006-12-08 01:30:23
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