Remember a few years ago there were consumer warnings about used cars being sold after they were in the Great USA Flood of '93? OK, so you don't. Point being, a lot of cars were in the flood, were cleaned up, and sold as if nothing had happened to them. I was reminded of this when refurbishing a recently acquired chandelier. From the outside it looked good, clean and intact, but once taken apart it was obvious it had suffered significant water intrusion. Weather (intended) it was from Katrina or a leaky roof I have no way of knowing. Drilling out rusted screws was the only way to refurbish this fixture. Once the restoration was complete, all traces of the damage was mitigated.
We typically do not purchase water damaged fixtures; however, in this case it was from a trusted picker who was unaware and had no way of knowing about the hidden damage.
My assumption is there are still a lot of vintage lighting fixtures which were damaged in Katrina, and other weather events, showing up for sale. We are vigilant about this and you should be, too.
Listen to your eyes. PB
No comments:
Post a Comment