Meet Our Craftsmen
Oscar Crawford brings a thoughtful, tactile approach to his work, handling each material with care and intention. Trained from an early age in the family tradition of furniture restoration, he grew up working above After Noah, apprenticing in the subtleties of varnish, polish, and structure. His practice embraces a slower, more reflective process, allowing form and surface to reveal themselves over time.
Alongside him, our senior restorer Mark Coverdale, poet and visual artist, brings a sensitivity for words and images that questions, reframes, and opens new ways of seeing. His patient eye complements the craft, ensuring that each piece is given the time it deserves.
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Before tools are lifted or surfaces revealed, the piece is allowed to rest. Grain awakens, forgotten joints stir, and time speaks through every crack and layer of finish. Only then do our hands begin their quiet work — restoring strength, reinforcing discreetly, intervening only where essential.
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No detail is too small: a missing veneer, a worn joint, a dulled polish. Each is addressed with respect, using techniques handed down through generations — French polishing, veneer repair and inlay, traditional reupholstery, woodcarving, oil- and water-gilding. These crafts preserve not only the integrity of the object, but also the character it has earned over time.
Restoration, to us, is stewardship. Histories deserve patience. Beauty requires time. Quality is inseparable from integrity. Oscar and Mark do not merely repair: they listen, interpret, and guide each piece back toward its best self.
We source materials responsibly, seeking out those that complement the original grain, patina, and story. Where modern finishes might overwhelm, we choose restraint. Our aim is not to silence a piece with newness, but to let it speak in its own voice, renewed with quiet strength.