Metro Station

An Evening of Fine Antiques and Libations

Our spring shipment from France is here!

New Shipment from France Arriving Soon!

An Evening with the Author, Talya Boerner

French Metro Antiques presents an Evening with the Author!  Please join us on February 18th from 5-7 pm, for an evening with Talya Boerner.  Talya, who resides in the Washington-Willow Historic District of Fayetteville, is proud to announce the release of her latest book, "The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee."  Celebrate with us and partake of libations and fine hors d'oeuvres prepared by Chef Elliot Hunt. 

 Excerpt:  The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee

"Last summer, Momma decided my little sister and I should learn to play the piano…Since I never planned to be in the Miss America pageant and wouldn’t need such a talent, I saw no point. What I really wanted to do was learn to speak French. I wanted to be that girl who, when invited to the White House for an important state dinner, would be the only person in the room who could speak with the French prime minister in his native language. I would help solve international problems while sipping champagne and wearing a black ball gown like Audrey Hepburn. President Nixon would be impressed to learn I started out as a farm girl from Arkansas. Last fall, I bought an old French lesson book at the library’s used book sale. Momma thought it was a silly waste. Besides English, Momma said the only practical language to learn was Spanish, because of our Mexican cotton choppers. Since I used my own money, she really didn’t have a say." ~The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee

We are headed back to France...

FOLLOW OUR BLOG - "It's the next best thing to being right there with us"
We are heading back to France on Saturday, January 9th for a three week buying trip that will take us from Paris to the provinces. Be sure to follow our blog as we uncover treasures along the way. You'll get an exclusive sneak peak at the one-of-a-kind pieces we find as well as a glimpse of the French countryside, interiors of French homes, and a behind-the-scenes look at our shopping excursions.

CUSTOM SHOPPING - "It's like having your own personal shopper in France"

French Metro Antiques is pleased to offer a complimentary custom shopping service. Let us find the perfect piece for you, whether it's fine artwork, architectural salvage, or one-of-a-kind furnishings and accessories. We'll take your detailed wish list with us to France and email you photos of pieces that will meet your needs. As professional antique buyers fluent in French, we negotiate the best possible price for you after examining each piece with a discerning eye for quality, beauty, and value. We’ve spent years developing relationships and off-the-beaten-path sources all throughout France, allowing us to consistently uncover the rare and unique. Not only is this service complimentary, but all custom purchases qualify for a 10% discount.


Send us your wish list >

Restoration Musings

In practicing the art of restoration, I approach each piece with respect and love of craft.  Understanding the original function and form is key to this process. I often mutter to myself that the hand must not be seen.



The first stage is cleaning. I carefully go over the entire piece and clean all the nooks and crannies. By walking my fingers across the varied surfaces, I am able to find the life that the piece has lived. Time is seen in the burn marks, ink spills, and markings from Mother Nature. In viewing the buildup of gunk, a technical term, I can see if the piece has lived part of its life in a kitchen or next to a fireplace. I can tell where the piece was in a room, and where the window was in relation to the furniture. My job is not to erase it all. It is to soften it and let the character that has taken form over time speak to its next owner. In applying wax to the surface, I protect the finish. The finish, usually shellac, is there to protect the wood. I protect the markings of time and place, so that the next generation can pass on a shared piece of history of which they are now a part.

The Golden Touch

I have always sympathized with the Pirates in so many childhood tales, because I too seem to be drawn to all things shiny.  As a child I watched my mother, a self-taught furniture doctor, take sadly destroyed giltwood frames and bring them back to their golden glory.  I took this knowledge gathered through observation for granted over the years, but after pursuing an MFA in painting, I found myself managing a decorative painting and restoration studio in Washington DC, and suddenly all of the knowledge passed to me as a child of a furniture doctor and painter was very useful.  In the last decade I have spent time gilding and restoring everything imaginable, from the ceiling of the Plaza Hotel in New York to the frames at French Metro. 

The first step to recognizing gold leaf is simple.  Items which have been gilt will have visible lines where the gold has been laid across the plastered surface. Normally a red iron oxide underbody has been applied and is visible through these lines.  Gold leaf is essentially a foil, so you can imagine that if you wrapped foil around a curved surface it would create little lines, but with gold leaf this is a much finer network of creases.  

If something has been gilt in 22karat gold, the individual leaves will have been laid all in a row, with the size of each leaf left clearly visible with the faint red tone of the underbody coming through each divide.  Recognizing real gold leaf is fairly simple.  Usually it has not been antiqued, and the shine and hue of the gold is much lighter as a result.  This is because real gold is immune to the oxidation and rusting that will attack lesser metals.  When something is finished in imitation leaf it must be varnished or sealed to keep the air from eventually turning it black.  The size of the leaf is also a good indication.  Real gold leaf is much smaller, usually coming in 2.5” squares, whereas imitation leaves come in 3” to 5” squares.

Real gold leaf is what adorns the exterior decorative elements of most of our nation’s monuments.  This is again due to its resistance to the elements.  Most of the frames that have made their way to French Metro have a long a storied history, and because of Renee’s wonderful eye for quality I can truly say they are all finished in gold leaf, not all 22 karat, no, but  they are all the real shiny stuff instead of paint, so this pirate has found her treasure. 

Art History Comes Home

Art history classes in college often consisted of the drudgery of route memorization. Movements and styles were observed and filed away with some small mental notes on preference.  It was not until I began to travel and see paintings in museums and houses around the world that the history of so many remembered works came alive.

A Copper Curiosity

After sixteen years of searching all over France for the rare and unique, I still run across something I've never seen before.  A beautifully hand crafted copper piece engraved with the year 1743...the date alone was enough to catch my attention!

Shipment from France Arriving This Week!