Even more amazing are some of the people involved in these industries who tirelessly endeavour to keep the integrity of the object to the fore at all times in their work. "We try to come up with something historically correct, not just something that looks the part, " explains furniture restorer, Sven Habberman of Conservation Letterfrack.

"All the work we do on furniture has been wellresearched so that objects that come into us from the 15th to the 21st century, are treated the way they would have been in their own time."

"If we must replace a part of a piece, then we try and identify the timber, replace it with the same timber and colour it to the perfect match, " he continues. "To make sure that in the future it is not considered to be original (because what we do is so good you'd never know) we put a mark on it so you'll see that the part was replaced thereby maintaining the integrity of the object."

Habberman was recently involved in the restoration of the Cork district Court house. "The furniture was originally made by a company called Grant and Co and we had to restore everything, including the leather seats which had been made from the skin of Nigerian goats, " he says. "So we sourced a tannery in England and asked them to make the exact same colour for the leather in order to reupholster the seven courtrooms in total."

Art conservation and restoration is as meticulous a pursuit as furniture but throws up different challenges. An art conservator may be involved in the inspection of paintings for incoming and outgoing exhibitions, the examination of the environment of paintings as well as the cosmetic side of the job . . . cleaning and removal of surface dirt on a piece. Roland-Hulme Beaman is a art restorer/conservator based in Kilkenny.

"Oil painting conservation is my discipline, including structural and passive conservation, " says Hulme-Beaman. "The passive aspect of conservation is less interesting but it is very important. It is when you make reports on the condition of a piece so that you can compare its condition today with how it was before. If you see damage on a painting you don't know if it is new or old. If it is new it might be a developing problem. If it is old, however, it could be perfectly stable. Making reports solves this problem."

Hulme-Beaman's clients include private companies, institutional organisations like churches, and the state.

I've worked on quite a few projects for the Office of Public Works, " adds HulmeBeaman. "The range of dates for work I do is generally from the end of the 16th century to 2006."

Both art and furniture restoration are time consuming so, if you want the job done right, it will come at a price. "For this kind of work to be done properly, it takes time, " says Habberman. "That tends to make it quite expensive."