Lexington, KY - To a certain extent, antique restorer Mason Roberts' day-to-day work carries a heavy potential to transport him to another era of craftsmanship: a time when daylight determined the workday, power tools were nonexistent and furniture was built to last. Having a solid grasp on the design standards and techniques of the olden days is crucial to Roberts' success - and fortunately, something that comes naturally to him, having worked closely with high quality antique furniture for nearly two decades. He finds it important to stay grounded and present in the midst of his restoration jobs, however, and finds subtle ways to differentiate his work space from the traditional woodworkers that preceded modern craftsmen.
"I intentionally make my shop look like a gallery art space - modern and spacey looking," Roberts said. "It alleviates that feeling of being stuck in a different century."
Roberts opened his antique restoration business, Antique Services, in 2000. With its bright fluorescent lights, tall warehouse ceilings, college radio background music, and other modern touches - skateboard tread on the stairs leading up to the "mezzanine" loft-like level that he built for extra storage, for example - Antique Services' Pine Street workshop does feel very 21st-century, in many ways. But that's not to say Roberts isn't keen on mimicking the handiwork of his artisanal ancestors - in fact, it's one of the most important aspects of his work.
An early mentor at the Harrodsburg antique dealership Jayne Thompson Antiques, where Roberts apprenticed for eight years, instilled in him a foundation and affinity for craftsmanship that has carried on to Roberts' current-day practice. Jayne Thompson is renowned nationwide for the quality pieces the dealership acquires, and Roberts' apprenticeship involved work with some very high-end, authentic pieces. It also included two years of using only hand tools (i.e., no power tools), a practice geared to distill technique.
"It was a really formal education in the world of antiques, and it gives me a unique perspective," Roberts said. "I was very fortunate to get paid to learn such a specific education."
Working with hand tools allows for more freedom, creativity and any number of outcomes, Roberts explained, whereas working with the electric tools that are standard in contemporary furniture making tends to result in a more uniform and predictable product. While he certainly uses power tools when he needs to, successfully replicating the original craftsmanship often requires the use of hand tools because that's what the original craftsman was using - using modern tools can result in different markings and other results that are inconsistent with the original work.
"It's a matter of mimicking what someone else did - even if what they did was not very good," Roberts said. "You don't want to do it better than the craftsman, because it will look just as bad as if you did it poorly."
Also contributing to the authenticity of Roberts' restoration work are the bits and pieces of antique parts that he has "squirreled away" over the years and tucked away in various nooks and crannies throughout his shop: chair legs, fasteners, floorboards, screws. If he can't use the parts for his own projects, Roberts has been known to help find them a good home - he recently built, painted and installed a tool board from some recycled plywood at the new 6th Street non-profit bicycle repair shop, Broke Spoke.
If he needs a replacement part that he doesn't happen to have in his collection, Roberts turns to local tool and die maker Johnny Turner, of Turner's Machine Shop, to fabricate the original piece - Turner has honed his skills in replicating items, such as fasteners and handles, and it is difficult to differentiate his pieces from the originals. The original parts, however, often hold an even greater importance to Roberts than their basic function - they can be crucial in revealing the age of an antique. Clues to an object's origin can be found anywhere from the evolution of fasteners to the tool marks imprinted on the piece.
While the recycling component is one of the most rewarding aspects of Roberts' work, perhaps equally rewarding is the feeling of accomplishment that comes with taking a broken object that may have a high sentimental value to someone, and putting it back in operation. Roberts said he has had clients bring him chairs to restore that are so badly damaged that the pieces are transported in a filing box.
"I've had people break down crying when they see something that I've fixed, because it reminds them a family member who gave them that piece," he said.
Admittedly, Roberts estimates that nearly half of his work is done to fix someone else's faulty repair job. One of the most common mistakes people make with their antiques is stripping a piece of its original finish - or, even worse, stripping it and then sanding it. The patina - the rings, stains, marks and general wear and tear on an item's surface - accounts for 40-60 percent of an item's value, so to erase that layer is to devalue the item by half, Roberts said.
Some projects that really stand out in Roberts' mind include working on a Roman column and refinishing a desk that belonged to Benjamin Franklin. In recent months, he worked on two pieces in particular that had fascinating backstories: an early 19th century American Empire armoire rumored to have once belonged to Henry Clay in the Ashland Estate, and a beautiful and very unusual hand-carved mantle created in the late 1800s by Cynthiana artist Lucy Tebbs, an accomplished woodcarver showcased in the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The mantle is unique in its own right, but the fact that it was carved out of a solid block of wood by a female artist in that time period adds an extra layer of allure.
"It's kind of an inspiring story. It was rather unusual for a woman at that time to be working in woodworking - this is not easy work and she has done brilliant work. I'm sort of in awe and kind of jealous at her abilities," Roberts said of the piece, which has remained in Tebbs' extended family since its creation, and was brought to him to restore after more than a century of wear and tear.
"This piece has been loved by six generations of the Tebbs family," said John Tebbs, a great-nephew of the artist. He and his wife are doing a renovation of the room the mantle has been stored in since he was a child. "We felt this antique deserved restoration as well."
"In the case of most of my projects, I am more or less recycling our past in the form of furniture," Roberts said. "Furniture is part of our cultural identity - once these antiques are gone, they're gone forever."