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Show - ' ' ' ' ; ii - - -. --T ' - ' ; i . : T- A . - . - 1 . .... - -yM - i i 1 , ; a'-, v 1 . v ----- n: " . ' . Moalb craftsman, Richard O. Horstman completes restoration work on 160-year 160-year old chair. One of a set of five, the (heirloom, chairs belong to Mrs. Ray Scovil, bear a manufacturing d,ate of 1808, and are believed to be original Sheridans. (T-I Staff Photo) Moab Restoration Project Uncovers History in Ancient Set of Cfiir s A set of 169-year-old chairs which may very well be Sheridan originals, are being restored by Moab craftsman, Richard Horstmann. The chairs are solid walnut, wal-nut, now soft and mealy with age. A tiny carved date inside in-side the left rear leg of each establishes their manufacturing manufactur-ing date as 1808. , '' ' ' Mr. Hdrstmamv a specialist special-ist in restoring antique furniture, furni-ture, recognized the Sheridan tapered leg-flute design of the chairs when they arrived at his job. However, he noted Sheridan's , claim to fame was established during 1790 to 1810 era, and long af ter the style was established manufacturers copied his design. de-sign. It was during the restoration res-toration work that Mr. Horstmann Horst-mann discovered the 1808 markings and realized he could be working on original Sher.'dns. The chairs have the typical front castors, all intact but two. These Mr. Horstman will have custom made. The castors fit into brass sleeves. FROM BOTTOM UP To restore them to their original stature, he completely complete-ly disassembled the chairs, removed the old finish, and reglued the sections. Chips in the old wood were replaced with hand-carved patches, so perfectly matched they are impossible to detect. Nicks and other age marks arc never removed in restoration .of old furniture. Much of the process of restoration res-toration is a trade secret. ' However, Horstmann adm;t3 he used five coats of lacquor to duplicate the orig'nal finish, fin-ish, plus sanding and a steel- : wool brushing before the final fin-al finish. The upholstery of the chairs has obviously been changed many times in their 160-years existence. The boards are so riddled from tacks they resemble wormwood. Reup-holstering Reup-holstering posed a problem this time; the wood is so fragile the craftsman had to ' reinforce the interior of the frame with oak strips so it would hold webbing. FROM CASTE LTON The chairs are family heir-loms heir-loms of Mrs. Ray Scovil of the Porcupine Ranch, Castle-ton. Castle-ton. .They once belonged lo her late great uncle, Charles Fred Homer, of Philadelphia, an importer of silks by trade Their age traces them back as possessions of her great, great, great grandfather, Jeremy Jer-emy Stimson whom -? cords indicate was a wea-iu- do doctor at Hopkinton (now Ashland) Massachusetts, at the age of 57 in 1908. Unfortunately, one of the ' original set of chairs is missing. miss-ing. Mrs. Scovil's mother Mrs Lilian Allen, took one to a craft shop in Oakland, Calif., to be mended, then lost , the address of the shop. She was never able to locate it and retrieve her chair. PART OF COLLECTION The furniture is a portion of priceless antiques owned by Mrs. Scovil and her family. Among other possesions posses-ions she has a Dresden china service for 12. But she would not have been able to trace the era of her chairs had not Mr. Horstmann been a master mas-ter of his trade, and made a painstaking search for their date of, manufacture as he disassembled them for restoration res-toration work. Mr. Horstmann spent years learning his trade. He has restored re-stored ; furniture for Biggs Antique, owned by Casey No-len, No-len, in Richmond, Virginia, a firm that specializes in reproductions re-productions of antiques, often of-ten paying huge sums for re-r- Action rights. He also vvunwd for Mertens Antique, another well known' eastern firm. He has originated beautiful beau-tiful contemporary furniture in his shops, but prefers 10 work with antiques. He is now working on an old round-top trunk, in which he plans to house a stereo for their home. Drying, on another an-other table is a toy spinning wheel which actually works which he recently restored for Mrs. Troy Anderson, of Moab. |