Tim's Work in SF: Reassembling Antique Display Cases

Tim just spent last week in San Francisco putting these antique display cases together for someone who bought them from the Helena owners. They are now being used in SF by Heather & Company to display antiques in her 9,000 sq. ft warehouse.

Here's what the cases looked like when they were still in place, in Helena. He dismantled two long cases like the one on the side of this space ... plus two center, lower cases like the one in front. Tim was the one they called -- to put them back together again. He was probably the only one who would know how to reassemble them. It took a full week to reassemble them in SF.


Antique Display Cases Pre-breakdown
Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.







And here they are after he finished reassembling them in SF:



The cases were originally shipped in two pieces by rail from Seattle in the 1920's (I could be wrong about the date) and installed in an upscale jewelry store in downtown Helena . In the ensuing years, the ceiling of the jewelry store had been lowered and the doorway remodeled so it was much smaller. When the owners wanted to sell them, they had to have Tim disassemble to cases into hundreds of tiny parts (notice the curved glass doors - all of the glass doors slide up above the cases, to open) in order to remove them from the building.

In reassembling the cases, he had to touch up the finish, and make many new parts that were not able to be salvaged from the original cases. All without his shop. My husband is so talented (and I'm not biased, am I?)

I think they need the lights on inside the cases to look as good as they did in Helena, in their jewelry store home.