i cant make the restoration poor on the basis that some criminal will get his hands on it and pass it off as mint or original...
Andrew, you've seen my work, and what I do is by no means poor. False modesty aside, I am very good at it. On the other hand, it is not original. For example, instead of leatherette, I usually use real leather, and usually it will be very thin garment grade Italian kidskin. If I use leatherette, it is much higher quality than the original stuff, and while it is often similar in appearance, it is not identical. However, if I don't like the appearance of the original leatherette, I'll probably use something I do like. The leatherette they had to work with back then was pretty crappy and I don't have the same constraints. I only do black though. I don't make "clown cameras," as some do.
again, if you buy from a reputable source then they evaluate the item (or in this case a camera) and disclose that it has been restored and what has been done.
Andrew, it would be very easy for me to fix up
some cameras to look very close to mint and to do it in such a way that they absolutely could not tell it had been restored, at least not beyond cleaning. I know where I can get big pieces of identical 50+ year old cellulose leatherette, I can dissolve the original shellac and reuse it, I can
make dies that I can use to stamp the original-style lettering into the leatherette, I can use rottenstone and a block to remove minor scratches without going through the chrome and I know how to do that without marring its appearance, and so on. I know how to do these things, but I choose not to do most of them, because I feel it would be somehow dishonest.
for example i often buy cameras (and other antiques), sometimes very antique cameras from a few diferent stores or auction houses (not meaning ebay) and they have a reputation to uphold and say whether and to what level a camera (or other item) has been restored. in many instances a restoration increases the value from what the item was valued before, of course there are instances when the reverse is true, it must be taken on a case by case basis. in other instances if an item is worn with age or damaged, there are exspert restorers in whatever feild of item you like..e.g. say replacing the leather and wording on book covers or reglueing the pages in. they dont do it to conterfeit or decreae the value or they would not do it, they dont if it will. replacing the leather and imprinting the title and auther of the book into the new covering in this case is restoration.
With rare books, replacing the cover is
almost never restoration and is
absolutely never done unless the book is falling apart and is so reduced in value that you have little to lose. With a
new cover, all you'd be doing is preserving the contents (the knowlege in the book). It would have entirely lost its collector value. A book can be rehinged and patched to the point it looks like it was quilted and will still be worth more than it would be with a new cover. Even if the leather is actually
rotting it is not replaced, but is treated with a consolidant and a preservative. The only exception to this is if you can use genuine period materials (For example, a much less worn, but otherwise identical piece of 100-year-old leather used to replace the cover on a 100-year-old book). BTW, I collect rare books too (Lovecraftian fiction). Also, whenever possible, book restorations are done these days so that they are reversible.