Indeed... why... well,

I am constantly falling in love with pieces of antique furniture - I have been known to crawl under things in historical houses - just to learn a little more!

I am still learning and wanting to share this knowledge with you. Perhaps this could become a site for the people by the people - who knows?

Having spent the last 20 odd years.. (wrinkled smile) dealing in antiques along with the restoration of furniture - to be honest, I am getting stiff at the joints and feel it is time for someone else to do the lifting...

and not being one to turn my back on a challenge (ask my family!) here we are joining the modern world and putting it all into a homepage!

Trying to date and identify antique furniture can be rather hard at times and here in Europe difficult to decide which country a piece has come from.

I shall be giving information on furniture restoration as well over time. We shall be speaking about PATINA and cleaning your antiques - rather than restoring them. Refinishing techniques, stripping, replacing parts and hardware - this list goes deep!

We shall also be looking into appraisals and values, antique dealers and how to deal with them (after all I am one of them dealers) - the ins and outs of buying and selling and so forth.

Where on earth does the Emporium come in, you ask..

Like I said I am an antique dealer, my expertise and love being furniture first - but how can one avoid the rest?

I have spent hours, days, weeks researching pieces of glass, porcelain and paintings I have bought to resell - sometimes one gets lucky and just falls over the information - oftentimes one sells something still wondering who made it or where it came from.

So... later we shall be adding interesting information on such antiques and of course as the site grows we will add Rachel's shop ....

Oh, and I am Rachel..

pleased to meet you!