the current thing trad losers are losing their minds over is one singular dude on reddit that refurbished and hand painted a grandfather clock and they keep saying the guy “ruined its value” or “threw thousands out the window by vandalizing a precious heirloom” and let me just say as someone densely familiar with the world of antiques, there’s a 99% chance that this clock was a mass produced reproduction and there’s a 100% chance that clock is
not as valuable as ppl think it is. when people hear the word ‘grandfather clock’ they’re always gonna assume you’re talking about something that was handmade in a woodshop by a jolly old man when rlly repros take up a
waaay bigger slice of the market far more than any handcrafted items. and besides people will repaint or redecorate these ‘oh so sacred handcrafted items’ every day there’s a huge market for them. it’s the same reason why people like long furbies or dolls that have been customized to have like gore mouths or something. this is literally like watching a bunch of pretentious farts make a mountain out of a molehill. also the clock is kinda cool if I’m being honest
this is what’s got them so mad. like the dude didn’t destroy it or anything, just made it more interesting to look at. when I see this I don’t go “this man is a danger to society because he RUINED a precious antique” i just think to myself “huh that’s actually some very impressive work with patterns, getting all those intricate geometric shapes done with just paint must’ve been hard work and it looks cool and the colors really pop” but idk maybe that’s just because I’m not completely deranged
This is all work that can be stripped if anyone wants to restore it to its original state in the future (I mean, why would you but ok), and the fact that they restored it, including putting hands on it and getting it to work, obviously, has far greater value than preserving the original wood finish of what looks like an 80s repro of a Victorian aesthetic.
the same guy also made this which looks to be an actual Old Thing but still cannot be called anything but an unambiguous improvement, and also holy shit it fucks
severely
