After finishing school in Sydney in the early 1980's, I left for University in Bathurst to do a B.A. in Journalism and picked up a part-time job in an antique shop. 

 

On foggy winter mornings, working in an freezing courtyard, my hands were numb with frost, cedar peices and methylated spirits. I often wondered why. I should have been at uni.

My first employer had a keen eye for quality. He was thorough cluey, and gave me a grounding in all the basics which I took back to Sydney after completing my degree in 1986.

I set up shop in an old barn in Randwick: buying, selling and restoring for dealers and the locals. And I began to see that there were many alternative modus operandi.

I learnt that once you cut through an original finish there was no way of getting it back, and that although I loved the sweet pungency of fresh cut Australian cedar, or the subtle flowery scent of Brazilian rosewood, they were best left undisturbed beneath a fine layer of lac casings.

In 1990 I went to live in Copenhagen and was introduced to a  wider world of furniture and restoration methods. I worked on compact and elegant Danish birch commodes, solemn German elm secretaires, English mahogany and rosewood sofa tables and I continued studying the gentle art of sympathetic antique furniture repair and conservation.

I learnt to patch in missing veneer using the identical colour and grain, to re-make drawers and doors with salvaged period timber and to revive badly watermarked and blemished table tops without removing all the old polish. I continued my journey into the subtle and mesmerising arts and then I got sick of the cold and began exporting containers of great Danish gear back to Australia.

In 1992 I set up Appleyard Antiques in Rozelle, and then moved to Balmain in the late 90's. 

 

Now I have just opened a workshop behind my shop in Darling Street: 394 Little Arthur Street, Balmain.

 

I hope you enjoy the site. 

 

Regards

Patrick Robinson

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Location

Shop Window Display: 394 Darling Street Balmain NSW Australia 2041

Workshop: 394 Little Arthur Street Balmain NSW Australia 2041

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Workshop: 394 Little Arthur Street, Balmain