The Doc-Restorer Giuseppe Visceglie earned his Gallons on the field through a meticulous coexistence with past legacies. At the beginning he was a skillful restorer, who was able to take a piece of antique furniture back to its primitive splendor. In such a way, a chest of drawers or a commode infested with woodworms, thanks to his miraculous cares, were restored from all the damages of the old age and regained the charm of days gone by, rising a great amazement and astonishment into his customers.
Besides….thanks to his everyday familiarity with the vintage temptations, this ready and sharp restorer, working meticulously on the object, was able to discover and to put into evidence those tricks, some businessmen often used to deceive their customers, trying to sell a “secretaire” as antique when it was born only some decades before, or an XVIII-century chest of drawer as original, when it had only some tinsels of the Enlightment. In few words, it was a clumsy attempt to put together some parts from an old piece of furniture to sell it as an antique one.
Such an experience let Mr Visceglie give an important turning point in his career: one day he decided to devote himself, sic et simpliciter, to the profession of restorer, in a continuous research for evidencies from a near or far past. In such a role of tireless hunter, he works today, from morning to night to offer his customers this or that antique object found in you don’t know what Italian region or abroad as well.
Even though he has always obtained surprising results in this field, he has never taken apart his old handmade job; on the contrary he uses it to offer his buyers that added value of a perfect restauration. He is very skillful to give a piece of antique furniture and objects their old beauty in the workshop located in the back side of his shop. It is a lab, or better a….clinic, where his customers can follow, if they like, step by step, the “lifting” worked on the old object by Giuseppe’s skillful hand, as long as it gains the “health” and beauty of past times again.
While in the lab Giuseppe looks after the illustrious “sick”, in the front shop, there is a gallery where lots of restored furniture, paintings, sculptures, drawings and gouaches, are ready to be enjoyed by experts and lovers on works of art. Together with the just-restored pieces of furniture, there is also the exposition of the unrestored ones, so that the customer can see the real conditions in which the furniture or objects have been found. It is a sale strategy: it makes the buyers appreciate the piece just like it is, with no tricks or cosmetics. It is only after the restoration that it will gain the refined “aura”, that will make it the most prestigious guest of our residence. In this way the customers will be able to appreciate not only the real value of the ‘piece’ but also the hard and keen work of a skillful craftsman like Mr G.Visceglie.
Vinicio Coppola
Mr V.Coppola is a great journalist in the service of television and press. Expert in antiques, he has cured the weekly column in the “Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno” where he has been the editor in chief and the editorial secretary. He was a coordinator of journalistic reports in Antenna Sud for about ten years. In the cultural field, he has received some important national prizes, such as Scarfoglio Prize, Symphaty Prize, Ausonia Prize, Valle dei Trulli Prize, Furore Prize and Prize “Foyer des artistes”.
© Copyright 2013 GIUSEPPE VISCEGLIE ANTIQUARIO