I have been a furniture restorer for over 45 years. I have worked with major Auction Houses in London, with Institutional and Private collections across the country. I am interested in taking on any scale of job and keeping rates reasonable. I am particularly interested in restoration work that is of importance to its owner, no matter the value of the piece.
I have collaborated with artists, designers and architects fabricating wooden objects and have recently begun to make a wooden range for interiors.
I am currently based in Kent but can collect and return work from across the UK. I am also entirely at home working with modern furniture & with modern finishes. I have extensive experience of mixing new with old.
“ At the heart of good making lies an intuitive knowledge of wood as a material, of its origins, its properties and behaviour; of its place in the balance of the natural order of things. The sense of design that grows out of this understanding is always interesting, often exceptional and occasionally sublime.
I have an increasing admiration for the skill, ingenuity and resourcefulness of the craftsmen and women of whose work I am caretaker.”
Stephen Parrott
Background
I was born and grew up in Johannesburg, went to boarding school in Kwa-Zulu Natal and moved to England in the early 1970’s.
I worked initially with musical instruments, for which I have an enduring passion. The move to antique furniture arose out of sheer admiration for the skill of Georgian woodworking craftsmanship. My apprenticeship was served with Antique Restorations Limited, who had been official restorers to Sotheby’s since the war. Four exceptional men, whose knowledge and experience I draw on on a daily basis.
Since then I have worked alone but have had the good fortune of numerous collaborations with craftsmen and women of exceptional talent and ability, all of whom I continue to work with; carving, gilding and painting, upholstery, cane & rush, glass and metal.
Practice
I see each piece as a full set of encoded instructions, in the makers’ own hand. The rhythm and weight of execution is clear and serves as the foundation for my own, the clues are in the wood and each piece is different.
This is the energy that drives my work: minimum intervention is key, economy of effort and precision in execution.
This is a physical knowledge: the basic principles of woodworking and finishing are universal, have evolved over centuries and been passed directly through generations.
The intended function of any piece provides the foundation for work. Once the structure is sound, attention can be turned to detail and to the finish. Time will have left its mark, sometimes delicately, sometimes not so.
My aim is to preserve what is good and beautiful whilst making good any injury. The subtle imprint of hundreds of years of light and dark, of life and touch cannot be replicated – therein lies the magic and this is to be protected.
The feel and presence of the piece is as important as the appearance. At another level, my work is essentially the conservation of aide-memoire.
.All this was foreseen in the original making. At the centre of course is my client, the current owner and custodian, the fulcrum across the span of time into the future.
Good restoration is a good investment.