Re: Historic Restoration
By Bob Conant
In a message dated 96-06-04 02:22:06 EDT, Joyce Brite writes:
> One idea referred to stands out in my mind, "historic restoration."
> Exactly, what is it? Is historic restoration the way the factory
> designed and manufactured the item, or the way people actually used it?
[ snip
> #2 - In 1974, the government wanted to encourage seat belt use, so they
> passed a law requiring that vehicles manufactured that year have a
> device that would not allow the driver to start the vehicle unless the
> seat belt were buckled. ............ Question: If
> you were restoring a 1974 automobile that had this device, would you
> leave it connected (because that's how the manufacturer built it!) or
> disconnect it?
Absolutely, you would keep it connected. While it was a pain in the butt (pun intended) when they were an everyday feature, today on a restored car they are no particular problem and are one of the unique features of cars of that era. The AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) recognizes only a few safety related deviations from true original without the loss of points. These include laminated safety glass on cars that did not come with it (generally pre-1930 or thereabouts), seat belts, tastefully installed in any car, and automatic turn signals as long as they are removable and/or discretely installed.
I have always been amazed that restorations of automatic musical instruments have not been held to similar standards of historical accuracy. While recognizing the difficulty of maintaining truly original materials, nonetheless many instruments are restored missing features or with features added that were not original to the instrument. This seems to be less true of the big orchestrions but many player pianos, theatre and residence organs, band organs and other instruments are modified greatly from the original. Often this is done in the interest of "improving" the musical performance but at the expense of historic accuracy. This is the equivalent of "hot rodding" an authentic antique automobile. I personally have mixed feelings about this but, coming from a background of antique auto restoration, I have certain misgivings about modifying antique instruments from the original beyond some compromises due to availability of materials.
Just my opinion, for what it's worth.
Bob Conant
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(Message sent Thu 6 Jun 1996, 03:03:57 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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