Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 25

Deteriorated gilt and paint on the glass doors of an early 19th Century secretary the Marxes restored By Christopher Weber He was a rifling department store executive she a promising student of art history Their marriage nearly three decades ago delayed for some time her graduation from college but eventually their interests converged on the career the Great Neck couple enjoys today Ina Brosseau Marx and her husband Allen are recognised conservators of painted and gilded surfaces specialising in the discovery trieval and reconstruction of ornament design and colors More simply they restore antiques a fulfillment for Ina Marx 49 and a complete shift in career for Allen Marx 55 Until February of 1977 he was a execu tive with a major New York department store As he worked his way up to that job Ina Marx sandwiched learning and work into her life as the mother of four sons She was the kind Cl mother she recalled who would so to work or to Bchool only when dinner was ready the clothes were washed and the kids taken care of 1 Nonetheless there were three years as a couturiers in Philadelphia and in Glen Rock in the early study in the conservation of oil paintings Hofttra University and privately more study of conservation at the New York Institute of Fine Arts eventually a degree from Queens College and for nine years starting in 1965 study at the Isabel Studio-Workshop in Manhattan Her instruction from Isabel was the turning point is for many the last word on the art of painted finish for fiirniture and decoration including antiquing lacquering and gilding Her studio is run like a Medieval guild Students start as apprentices and work up to journeyman status The grade of master has been granted to only four of those students in 22 years Ina Marx is one of them "A whole new world opened to ms" she said "When you study art history in college they tell you absolutely nothing about the decorative arts No one was doing undergraduate work with the decorative arts As I studied I realized the Ina Brousseau Marx works with her husband Allen on an antique table that they are restoring Alien Marx recently left a career in merchandising to join his wifi a recognized conservator in restoring antiques such as the table shown in detail at left and in full below.