Dan's Papers - July 4, 2008 - Restoring Highboys, Preserving History

When Israel Simoes was growing up in Portugal and learning the careful craft of wood and furniture restoration from his grandfather, he often grew tired of hearing his beloved mentor constantly repeat one particular phrase: "If you're going to do something, do it right." Fortunately for Simoes, and for his many future customers, he listened. Decades later, he's still following this wise advice - and the proof is in the final result of every antique chair, table and dresser he touches at Legacy Restoration, his Water Mill studio.

Simoes came to Southampton from Portugal with his family in the late '80s. After completing high school and attending a few semesters of college, he decided to trade in his math and science textbooks for books that were (and are), to him, the greatest stories ever told: those about wood and furniture. "Books were so expensive in Portugal," Simoes said. "And books about furniture were very uncommon. Here, I loved borrowing them from the library, and eventually started buying my own. I have a huge collection now." This collection taught him how furniture was built, what it was supposed to look like, and countless techniques, including those not commonly practiced today that might have been lost forever if not for a written record.

When he ran out of projects to repair and refurbish at home, Simoes supplemented his knowledge by working hands-on and behind the scenes at Victory Gardens, a high-end antiques store in East Hampton. He stayed there for 11 years and learned a lot - especially about French antiques, which the store specialized in - before deciding to venture out on his own. "It just got to a point where customers saw my work and said, 'Israel, it's time.' And it was."

Today, five years later, in a studio filled with projects in various states of disrepair (and repair) and the tools of his trade, Simoes continues his journey of self-education. On a recent early summer evening, he'd just received 10 black American-style chairs from a client who'd won the set at Sotheby's. The auction house's white satin ribbons still adorned the chairs' arms and legs ("Maybe they think it keeps them from falling apart?"), and already Simoes had begun assessing what he needed to do to bring the pieces back to life - a process that, to start, included re-caning the seats and tightening the joints. Nearby, two twin beds were about to be transformed into one king-size bed without losing their original historic characteristics. A few pieces from Mecox Gardens, the popular antiques boutique in Southampton, awaited touchups. And the biggest of all the waiting projects, an 18th-century American highboy, had just been stripped of the black lacquer that wasn't even around at the time of the piece's creation, revealing the wood's natural, delicate patterns.

"That one," said Israel, "That one was tough."

Tough, but not impossible. Simoes says he doesn't have as much experience working with American antiques as he does with French and Spanish, but what he doesn't know, he finds out. On a recent trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, he went to a museum and saw displayed a pristine version of the 18th-century highboy awaiting restoration 500 miles away. After asking a colonial-attired museum staff member for permission, he took dozens of pictures of the piece on his digital camera, carefully capturing every small detail he would need to replicate upon his return. Since that trip he's also discovered the public "studies" in the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which, with their shelves filled with untouched, original American antiques, are a restorer's heaven.

For Simoes, this is how you do it right. "I always want to learn more - through books, colleagues and hands-on experience. If you stop learning, if you refuse new ideas, or what someone else did 200 years ago, your business will suffer. It's an evolution of yourself and your business at the same time."

Legacy Restoration is located on Windmill Lane in Water Mill. For more information, call 516-314-7219, or visit www.legacyrestoration.com.