ARC Services
Antique Furniture Restoration in Brisbane & Gold Coast
Antique Restoration and Conservation Services (ARC Services) is a Gold Coast based family business. We specialise in the repair and conservation of all periods of antique furniture, decorative art, gilding, silverware, metal fittings and enrichments.
We are based in Burleigh Heads, but regularly take on work from Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and NSW. Interstate inquiries are most welcome. If you send us a few good pictures (via email or text), we can normally give you an accurate quote.
What we specialise in
We are traditional craftspeople. Calvert Regan received his training in the UK after serving a full apprenticeship. Prior to emigrating to Australia in 1989 he worked as a furniture restorer & conservator for the British National Trust and English Heritage. Calvert also taught antique furniture restoration and fine furniture making at the Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology. Calvert was joined by his sons Justin and Damian and the business is now run as a family concern. When we undertake work you can be assured that your valuable piece never leaves the safety of our workshop, and all work is conducted by us in house. No work is ever sub-contracted out to other craftspeople.
Calvert, Justin and Damian are very careful to use materials and techniques that would have been used at the time the piece was made. It is very important that repair or conservation treatments can be reversed. Should restoration be required, it is done sympathetically and in a manor which can be reversed should that be required later in the life of the piece. This ensures that the value of the artifact is not destroyed or altered. This is in line with current conservation practices.
Our specialist antique restoration skills include:
- Furniture restoration using traditional methods and materials ensuring the value and integrity of the piece is maintained
- Fine traditional craft skills to repair or replace intricate carvings, veneer inlay, marquetry, and decorative details.
- Traditional shellac French polishing, waxing and hand finishing
- To revive existing finishes where possible without stripping and refinishing
- Water and fire damage damage repair to antique and fine furniture
- Removal of cup rings and localised water stains from fine finises without damaging the integrity of the surface
- Insurance and removal damage repairs to antique, fine furniture or decorative items.
- Gilding using traditional methods – water gilding and oil gilding
- Lost wax and centrifugal casting to duplicate or replace missing metal fittings, fixtures, handles or other furniture hardware
- Clean and remove tarnish from gold enrichments on furniture such as ormolu without loss of precious metals using ionic reduction cleaning
- We also have a considerable stock of extremely rare and aged timber from around the world to replace or repair fine antique furniture.
Our specialist antique silverware & decorative metal restoration skills include:
- Traditional silversmithing, jewellery making and fine metal craft skills
- Repair and polish antique silverware such as silver plates, silver ornaments, decorative items and candelabrum
- Repair and polish decorative antique items made from metals such as copper, brass, pewter and bronze
- Intricate wax carving, and lost wax casting to replace metal decorative enrichments such as ormolu
- Duplicate or replace missing metal fittings, fixtures and decorative items
- Silver soldering and metal casting
- Antique jewellery repair, jewellery polishing and Jewellery cleaning using ionic reduction