Do Restorations Destroy the Value of an Antique Stove?

If you watch "Antiques Road Show" on PBS you often see an appraiser tell someone with colonial error table or old coin "if the original patina had not been removed the value on this item would be X times greater. Never restore a collectable antique to "like new" condition is you want to retain it's value. "
Is this true of antique stove?

In my opinion, no...

No. A stove is a utilitarian piece no matter how ornate it may be. Their value is increased greatly by restoration. A stove is like an old telephone, phonograph or other useful object.
They are worth more when they do or are capable of what they were made to do.

Underdog wrote:If you watch "Antiques Road Show" on PBS you often see an appraiser tell someone with colonial error table or old coin "if the original patina had not been removed the value on this item would be X times greater. Never restore a collectable antique to "like new" condition is you want to retain it's value. "
Is this true of antique stove?

No the closer it can be brought to like new condition the better. That applies to cars and antique clocks as well. If the item is in like new condition and never restored that of course is even better. There are restorers of antiques so good that experts can't tell the difference.

The restoration that is not helpful usually has to do with wooden objects.
The wear patterns and the finishes are not correctable or reproducible.

And coins - you never want to polish an old coin! That can cost you big ...

No man clean it with toothpaste, it will be worth 10X...lol no don't do that..

Stoves need to be maintained, a sort of perpetual restoration. They aren't capable of lasting fifty years after being assembled at the foundry without maintenance. A stove restoration is just replacing of the "wear" items. Keeping it shining and safe for use. If you slapped a coat of stove polish on and re-sealed it after every heating season, it would be considered preventative maintenance wouldn't it? A bit over kill, but it would be.

Coins don't require maintenance to function in their intended purpose. Therefore I can see polishing one up hurting its value. Same with the furniture on a firearm, if it doesn't affect the function, there is no reason to mess with it.

I'm with everyone else, if it can't do what it was originally made to do its worthless. A coal stove is worth more "restored" heating someone's home, than it is unrestored being used as a planter.

franco b wrote:

Underdog wrote:If you watch "Antiques Road Show" on PBS you often see an appraiser tell someone with colonial error table or old coin "if the original patina had not been removed the value on this item would be X times greater. Never restore a collectable antique to "like new" condition is you want to retain it's value. "
Is this true of antique stove?

No the closer it can be brought to like new condition the better. That applies to cars and antique clocks as well. If the item is in like new condition and never restored that of course is even better. There are restorers of antiques so good that experts can't tell the difference.

You are very wrong on he cars collectors all say it is only new once and rather have an old Bugatti covered in dust than fresh paint. A Ferrari with all the dirt and grime of running the 24 hours of Le Mans is 10X of a 'pretty' one. You are dead wrong on historic cars. A car that Mario or Emo drove and exactly as it was at the end of a race is priceless the washed and waxed one not so much. If you have a F1 car that Jackie Stewart drove in a GP race and got tangled up with another car you have a priceless piece of history wash and buff it and becomes another old car. Speak about what you know not imagine.

I would think that a quality restoration would increase the value, at least to me it would. However, a bad restoration job, in my opinion would reduce the value of an antique stove.

Randy

Do restorations destroy the value of an antique stove?

It depends upon how you value it. If you value it for its aesthetics and heat comfort, then no. If you value it for its age and decaying rustiness, then yes.

Short version: It depends.

It's down to stability. The Taj Mahal if left unmaintained will vanish in 10,000 years. An ice cream cone on a summer day - five minutes. These stoves will vanish unless they are maintained and many are hanging by a thread now. Nothing lasts forever. The discussion as to temporary monetary value is secondary. We are merely temporary guardians in time.

ddahlgren wrote: You are dead wrong on historic cars. A car that Mario or Emo drove and exactly as it was at the end of a race is priceless the washed and waxed one not so much. If you have a F1 car that Jackie Stewart drove in a GP race and got tangled up with another car you have a priceless piece of history wash and buff it and becomes another old car. Speak about what you know not imagine.

The subject was not historic cars, but rather antique cars in general which are always more desirable restored as are stoves. Celebrity or historic artifacts are a different category. Obviously if you had Lincoln's pocket knife you would not want to mess with it. I would not wash a baseball signed by Babe Ruth.

Finding an exception to a rule does not disprove the rule.

Photog200 wrote:I would think that a quality restoration would increase the value, at least to me it would. However, a bad restoration job, in my opinion would reduce the value of an antique stove.

Randy

This is a major part of value and price bargaining for those who realize that the word "restoration" is not black and white, but many shades of gray.

Knowing who did the restoration is often a price changer. In my business of early 1900's antique auto restoration, it's very common at the higher price levels to site the restoration shop that did the work as part of the added value of the car.

Yes, some cars are worth more restored, but not always. It depends on many factors. And yes, there are cars that were famous for a small time in their life such as winning a race, or other important moment, that make them worth more as a result. One story is Bill Harrah, of Harrah's Casino fame had a famous early 1900's, cross-country race car that was in bad shape after years of neglect. His crew did a beautiful restoration of it for his Harrah's car collection museum. Bill saw the finished car and was upset. He made them redo it to what the car looked like when it crossed the finish line all dirty and beat up. That's restoring the car to it's place in history, not just restoring the car, and greatly increased it's value as such.

The down side to restoration is it can be greed driven. Many decent cars were being poorly restored just to be flipped. In my business they are known as "restoration mills". A lot of originality that is a part of history was getting lost in corner-cutting restorations.

However, with museums, and many collectors, the first rule of collecting is preservation of an historic artifact.

To try and preserve as many original vehicles as possible from the wave of poor restorations, the Antique Automobile Club of America started a "Preservation Class". They give awards based on original condition. Thereafter, the same vehicles can go for yearly awards for maintaining levels of preserving that originality.

The same can be said for many types antiques. Where it gets confusing is, there are so many personal views of what restoration means.

Paul