????????????????antique dry sink?????????????????????

And if you look really close...you'll see that it was originally painted red. All softwood furniture....corner cupboards, dry sinks, blanket chests, doughtrays...was painted. (Of course, as soon as you make such a rule, you'll find exceptions....) The people of the early days saw all the wood they cared to see (getting fuel for their fires, building materials for their mid-19th-century housing bubble), and needed color in their lives, so they painted a lot more or their furniture than we think they did. Much of it was also paint-decorated with geometric patterns, flowers, birds, names, dates, horses, Their eyes were not BOMBARDED with stimuli as ours are. There were no TVs, computers, phones, even books and magazines were quite rare, so little flashes of color....wildflowers, birds, paint, brightly-dyed cloth, were welcomed to their visual fields! If you ever consider the restoration of a painted piece, you will be most successful if you try to make it appear as if the original paint is all it ever got. In other words, you must study all the wear and damage the piece has accumulated and repaint with the knowledge that the paint could not be present where there is wear or damage. You will end up with a piece about which some will say, wow, that's old...when are you going to "do it over"? Which means refinish it to bring it to a state which we consider acceptable ......."nice". MUCH value has been lost over the years since 1920, when the collecting of antiques emerged as a popular hobby, by the removal of original surfaces. I don't know anyone in the field who doesn't kick himself for having ruined a piece or two by such means! Pain is a good teacher.