Robert Miss has been collecting for 40 years. He became interested in early furnishings while restoring an 1840 built house in Burford Ontario. Then in 1988, he and his wife Jennifer bought the historically significant Hiram Capron house in Paris, Ontario. It was livable, but he soon started the painstakingly slow process of personally restoring every room to a close proximity of its past glory. To his delight, one day when installing a computer cable he noticed that the beams above the great room ceiling were planed and beaded indicating that the room had originally had an open beamed ceiling. This restored feature is a relatively rare example of this early style.

When asked about his approach to dealing in antiques, Robert Miss describes himself as being primarily a preservationist. He states, “I think of a collector as someone who focuses on one thing, say crocks, and then devotes their energies to that subject. I became interested in furnishing my 1831 house with period pieces, and so developed an interest in all the furnishings and household items of that early period. I developed a love of these early hand-made pieces. Primarily, I look for pre 1875 items in original finish. I collect and sell only pieces that I would have in my home. I try to go a bit further to choose pieces which are a cut above.”