James Hardie
James Hardie of J & J Hardie Antiques is one of few antique restorers out there. I met up with him one morning to see what goes on inside his curious workshop.
I met with James one morning, on a day where spring could not decide if it had sprung or not. It was early on that I arrived at his workshop which is tucked away off the main roads, nestled in Newhaven. I was immediately offered a coffee to my delight. James went off to make the coffees while I tried to find somewhere to set up.
I had always been in awe of his workshop, always fascinated by what went on in there as I walked past it most mornings. The outside painted in bottle green with gold lettering and the all wood interior, filled with even more wood and antique furniture everywhere.
Once inside, I am amazed at just how much stuff fits in the workshop. "There used to be 5 of us working in here at one point" James says when we talk about how much stuff is crammed in. There is spare bits of wood and what seems like
hundreds of wooden legs stored everywhere, there is even 3 chairs hanging from near enough the ceiling.
The workshop had been bought about 30 years ago, which was formerly a grocery shop. It had been left fully stocked, abandoned for 2 years. A lot of the shelving is all original, the door handles too which were odd little handles. If you can imagine what an old Victorian toilet handle looked like, it was almost like that.
"Well, I went to university to become an architect and realised I didn't really like it.
Well, I liked it -
but I didn't want to do it for the rest of my life."
Every time I look around, there is always something new to see or look at. I spot a tiny dog bed at the window. "Coco is usually here, not today though. I used to have Labs who are super smart, you know? But not Coco, he really, really is daft"
He gets his phone out and shows me a picture of a 9 month old curly haired cockapoo puppy. I wish I had a photo to show you, but we both proudly show off dog photos to each other for a good wee while.
As we chat over coffee, James tells me he was never almost destined to be an antique restorer.
"Well, I went to university to become an architect and realised I didn't really like it. Well, I liked it, but I didn't want to do it for the rest of my life. And luckily I really enjoy what I'm doing here, and I'm still learning and improving everyday. It's a very enjoyable job"
"Because its very visual, you cannot make a mistake. It has got to be invisible the repairs or as near invisible as possible. So sometimes its quite a push to get things looking right. Yeah, it is very, very enjoyable." He has a smile on his face as he tells me this. It is rare to find someone who enjoys or stays in a profession for as long as he has.
when I ask him about him having an apprentice or teaching someone to pass on his knowledge he lets out a sigh. "And I tried to pass on the knowledge. But usually, it's money that counts. People that have trained up have gone off to fit kitchens, or lay click together floors, because there's so much more money in it. And no, I'm now of the age where I don't really want to employ anybody because if I retire, and want to get rid of the business, I'd have to give them a huge amount of money to be able to retire. Yeah. So I'm not going to employ anybody now, no. Doesn't doesn't add up does it?"
"Because its very visual, you cannot make a mistake. It has got to be invisible the repairs or as near invisible as possible"
pictures by Robyn Bell 2022
James shows me around the workshop. One item is for Pitlochrie, one for Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and even London. "I do quite a wee bit for London...So it does come from all over. But I'm lucky in that I've got a good reputation. So I get called a lot. Some clients do a lot of research before they ask you to work for them. And they go through lots of different channels like National galleries and so on"
Now James has a client that you might have heard of - the Prince of Wales. Yep that's right, Prince Charles. After impressing him with the work he had done at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, he was asked to work in Dumfries House. Dumfries house, was saved by Prince Charles in 2007 with his charity The Princes' Foundation. The house has 10% of the worlds authenticated Chippendale furniture. James helped preserve and restore Dumfries house, including a padauk bookcase which Is worth £20 million.
when asked if he was nervous about working on something of such high value, he admitted "It took me a few days to settle down, yeah. It's a work of art actually. The bookcase is a work of art . Chippendale was famous for, which he used to boast about was his close fitting doors. And you wouldn't even get a sheet of newspaper into the gap they are that tight and they actually are tight they really are, which makes it kind of difficult to open it. But the quality of work for 1759 I think that was goodness me the qualities you just can't beat"
"It's a work of art actually. The bookcase is a work of art ."
With over 40 years of working with antique furniture, I ask to see if he has made any major mistakes, but James has had a pretty good run, his last accident was 20 years ago, with a bit of glass broken after a bookcase door swung round and hit his screwdriver.
"I get called in sometimes because somebody's broken something and the owner doesn't know because they are on holiday or something. And I've got to fix it before they find out. That's not uncommon actually."
While doing the interview, my laptop was on a chair part of it until he told me it was worth a few thousand. I swiftly moved it after that.
"There's a Chinese libation cup over there. tiny little thing, with a few thousand that. " I pick up a tiny dark wooden cup, with an intricate leaf pattern carved on the underside. "some of them can be 20,000. I don't know what that one is worth, a few thousand at least. after putting the libation cup straight back down and carefully, I take in all his tools. There must be hundreds of tools laying about the workshop, some hanging, some in the back room with many bottle of polish. "You know some of these are pretty old, some are Victorian. That's an old Victorian thing for getting sizes, it was very nice made, gilded brass.
You don't get tools that are made of gilded brass anymore. And I have Japanese saw, these are very good. Yeah of course, the normal chisels, which chisels aren't as good nowadays, as they used to be. The steel is just not the same. My carving tools are mostly Victorian.
His most enjoyable job to date, was making a case for a scientific instrument. "Quite a few years ago now, which took a month to make and nearly didn't try it. Because it was a glass case but it was a big domed glad case to go over this thing called a Grand Orrery."
"Which you would wind a handle and all the planets and everything in the universe spin. The earth is tuning round and everything rotates. But if you looked at the globe of the earth, there was only a little bit of Australia engraved into it because they hadn't discovered it all yet. That was good fun, I really enjoyed it."
His work varies and comes from all over. he is in demand for sure. Hopefully James has many more years of work to come and we can see him working in the workshop with Coco sleeping at the window.