How art and antiques travel

Framed works and mirrors

The face never touches plastic. Glassine paper, smooth, acid-free, non-stick, goes against the surface first, because bubble wrap pressed on paint or gilt for a warm hour in a truck leaves its pattern behind. Then corner protectors, then the felt blanket, then board or crate depending on size and value. Canvases travel upright, never flat: flat means flex, and flex cracks paint. On the truck, framed works ride strapped to the wall in the last-on, first-off position, so nothing is ever stacked against them.

Glass-fronted works get tape in a star across the glass first, if the glass goes, the tape holds the shards off the artwork it was protecting.

Antique furniture

The rule for old finishes: nothing adhesive touches the timber. Stretch film goes over blankets, never under them; shellac and French polish will lift under direct plastic in warm weather. Beyond that: drawers out or tied (out, for a stair carry), marble and glass tops carried separately and vertically, finials and hardware bagged and taped to the inside of a drawer where they can't be lost, and the piece mapped for existing marks before it moves, honest crews photograph first.

The clock, the cellar, the piano

Three specialists in one paragraph. Pendulum clocks travel with the pendulum removed or immobilised, always. Wine wants bottle-down cartons, minimal hours in a hot truck, and a plan at the far end that isn't "the garage until we sort it", a January garage will cook a cellar. Pianos are their own trade, trolley, track boards and skid, and we've written them into the service page properly.

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The cover conversation, before the wrap

Wrapping protects against the ordinary; cover answers the extraordinary. Before any remover, us included, takes a piece you'd grieve, get straight answers in writing to four questions:

• What cover applies while my goods are in transit, and who provides it? Some cover attaches to the remover, some you arrange yourself; the industry's association publishes guidance on how removalist insurance works, worth reading once.
• Is the piece covered at an agreed value, or a formula? A weight-based formula is meaningless for a painting. Anything irreplaceable should be named, valued and listed before it travels.
• What's excluded? Owner-packed cartons commonly are. If you pack the porcelain yourself, understand what that changes.
• Would this piece be better with a specialist fine-art carrier? The honest answer is sometimes yes, museum-grade works and touring-exhibition pieces have their own industry. A good remover says so instead of improvising.

Ask us these four on the callback and you'll get the answers in writing before you book, that's a standing promise, and it's one enquiry away.