When something old arrives damaged, it usually wasn’t dropped; they were packed into something that fitted them approximately, and then it spent four days moving around inside that box. Standard cartons are built around the cube rather than the object, and antiques are rarely cubes, a mirror-backed sideboard, a marble-topped washstand and a longcase clock all share the same awkwardness, in that the fragile parts and the strong parts are in completely different places.
Everything therefore begins with the piece in front of you rather than with the materials on the shelf. Photograph and note the condition before anything is wrapped, both because it settles any argument later and because it makes the packer look properly at what they’ve got.
What touches the finish matters more than most people assume. Plastic sheeting against shellac or French polish will mark it once a container warms up, so the first layer wants to be unbuffered acid-free tissue or glassine, with foam or wadding over that and the moisture barrier sitting outside the lot.
The crate is then built to the piece, not the other way round, with a cavity of roughly 50 to 75mm of foam and blocking arranged so that the weight travels through the frame of the crate rather than through the legs, feet or cornice of the item. Skids underneath allow forklift access, and four-way entry is worth having on anything entering general freight. Screw the lid rather than nailing it, since prising a nailed panel off with a bar sends shock directly into whatever you just spent the morning protecting.
Anything that can come off should come off. Marble tops go separately and on edge, because flat and unsupported is how they crack across the middle; mirror plates and glazed doors are removed and crated flat; drawers are either taken out or held closed with cotton tape rather than anything adhesive. Keys, finials and loose brasses belong in a labelled bag fixed inside the crate, which is where they’ll still be when somebody opens it six months later.
Clocks deserve their own paragraph. On a longcase, the hood lifts off, the movement and dial come out, and the weights and pendulum get packed on their own, with the chains or gut lines tied so they can’t run down into the plates. A longcase trunk is mostly glue and air, so it needs support down its full length and not just at either end. On bracket and carriage clocks, the pendulum is immobilised or removed and the strike hammers are secured, because a hammer left loose will hit the same spot on the bell for the entire trip. If you have questions ask a specialist that has antique clocks for sale like Dutch Time Pieces.
Anything crossing a border needs solid timber that’s heat treated and ISPM 15 stamped, though plywood and OSB are exempt. Sea freight also wants desiccant inside the barrier, because a container crossing the tropics goes through a condensation cycle every single day it’s at sea.
All of this costs more than a blanket and a strap, and it’s still a small fraction of the insurance excess on anything worth crating in the first place. The crate usually ends up as the storage case too, which is worth telling the customer before it goes on the fire.
