Ordinary packing supplies work well for most shipments, but they can quietly harm art and antiques. Newsprint transfers ink onto light surfaces. Bubble wrap pressed directly against a painting can leave a pattern in soft varnish. Colored tissue bleeds dye…
Antique sewing machines and typewriters look indestructible. Many are made of cast iron and steel and have already survived a century. But they fail in transit in very predictable ways: a heavy machine head breaks loose and smashes through its…
Antique lamps are a shipping puzzle. The base may be heavy cast metal, carved wood or thick pottery, while the shade is thin glass, leaded panels or hand-painted parchment. Add a glass chimney, a brass harp, a finial and old…
Handing a painting, a sculpture or a piece of antique furniture to a stranger is nerve-racking, and it should be. Fine art and antiques are often irreplaceable, and the difference between a careful shipper and a careless one shows up…
A taxidermy mount can carry years of memories: a first deer, a trophy fish, a bird mounted by a grandparent. It is also one of the easiest things to damage in shipping. Ears crack, antler tips snap, fins split, feathers…
Antique furniture was built to last, but it was not built for modern freight. A Victorian sideboard, a mid-century credenza or a 19th century writing desk may have survived generations in one house, yet a single trip in a truck…
