The Christmas Chest: an engraved chest under the tree, filled over the holidays, restored in January. Order by 31 October for Christmas delivery. See the Christmas Chest

Your family’s photos are fading. Someone has to save them.

Prints fade, albums fall apart, and the one person who knows who’s who won’t always be here to tell you. We restore every photo, date and name it, and send it all home in an engraved chest.

Reserve a chest Restore one photo free
R5 000 deposit holds your place. Fully refundable until we engrave and send your chest. The balance is due only after you’ve approved your First Look.
The problem

The photos are still in the cupboard. That’s the trouble.

The photos are wearing out

  • Colour fades a little more every year.
  • Prints turn yellow and curl.
  • Water and mould leave stains and spots.
  • Sticky albums slowly eat the prints they hold.

Nobody is looking after them

  • They sit in a box at the back of a cupboard.
  • There’s one copy for the whole family.
  • The people who remember the names are getting older.

Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

How it works

Five steps, and you only do one of them.

1

We send the chest

Engraved with your family’s name.

2

Don’t sort. Just fill the chest.

Put a sticker on the favourites. We include the stickers. See what can go in.

3

We collect it

By insured courier. We photograph every item and send you the list within 48 hours.

4

Your First Look

10 of your photos, restored, within 5 working days. Love them, then we do the rest. If you don’t, we send everything back, you don’t owe the balance, and you keep your chest.

5

It all comes home

Originals returned, with restored prints and a memory stick.

What can go in the chest

Photos and albums, in any state.

Yes
  • Printed photos of any size, colour or black and white
  • Photo albums, including the sticky kind. We take the photos out carefully, or scan them in place if they won’t come out safely.
  • School and studio portraits
  • Polaroids
No

Because of passwords and privacy, we don’t take devices.

  • Phones and tablets
  • Laptops and computers
  • Hard drives and other devices
Not yet

We may add these in future.

  • Letters, certificates and documents (coming soon)
  • Digital files, on a USB stick or drive (coming later)
  • Slides and negatives
  • Video tapes and audio cassettes
  • CDs and DVDs
See the difference

Restored, not replaced.

Drag the line across to compare. Colour comes back, and tears, creases and stains are mended. How we restore.

Before After
‹ ›
How we restore

Careful craft, checked by hand.

Memory Chest was created by two of South Africa’s leading post-production specialists. Post-production is a craft of refinement and quality control, and we bring the same care to every photo.

  1. 1We scan every photo at high resolution.
  2. 2We repair fading, colour, tears, scratches and stains using a range of professional restoration tools, including our own technology, powered by artificial intelligence.
  3. 3Before anything comes home, a person checks every restored photo against the original, face by face.
An honest limit

Some photos are too blurry to sharpen. When the detail isn’t in the original, we repair the colour and damage and leave the face as it is, rather than guess. We’ll tell you which ones.

Restore one photo free

WhatsApp us a photo of one damaged photo. We’ll send it back restored within 48 hours, free. No catch.

WhatsApp us a photo +27 71 034 3242 How to scan or photograph your photo
Your worries, answered

What families tell us before they start.

“I don’t have time to sort hundreds of photos.”

You don’t. Fill the chest. We scan everything and restore your favourites.

“The family won’t let the albums leave the house.”

Insured in transit by courier, every item photographed on arrival, and every original returned. On Heirloom, we come to the house and pack it with them.

“Nobody knows who half these people are.”

Name one face per person and we find the rest.

“It’ll sit on a memory stick nobody opens.”

The Reveal Kit turns it into a moment. See What comes home.

“It’s expensive for one person.”

Share it. One payment link, and brothers, sisters and cousins can each chip in.

What comes home

The day the family opens the chest.

Photos nobody has seen in years, back in the family’s hands. Everything arrives in the chest.

The chest

Solid wood, engraved with your family name. Yours to keep.

Every chest

Your originals

Every photo returned. Albums come back whole.

Every chest

The prints

A new print of every restored photo, laid in the chest.

Every chest

The memory stick

A Memory Chest 128 GB stick with every photo, dated and named. Plus a download link that works for three months.

Every chest

The Reveal Kit

A 3-minute slideshow set to music, a reveal card, and story-prompt cards to ask the family’s storytellers.

Family and Heirloom

The book

A bound photo book of your family’s story.

Heirloom only

A framed A3 print

The best photo in the chest, framed and ready to hang.

Heirloom only

A stick for each sibling

A memory stick for up to four sibling households.

Heirloom only

The Storyteller Session

We visit the family’s storyteller (a mother, father, grandparent, aunt or uncle, whoever knows the stories) and pack the chest with them. We record them naming the people and telling the stories,.

Heirloom, or add it on
Four quick questions

Which chest is right for you?

{{ stepLabel }}

{{ qTitle }}

Your chest: {{ resultName }}

{{ why1 }}

{{ why2 }}

See the Christmas Chest
Pricing

Three ways to keep them

Keepsake Chest

For a shoebox or a couple of albums.

R15 000
  • 150 favourites restored, dated and named
  • Everything in the chest scanned
  • A new print of every restored photo
  • First Look: 10 restored within 5 working days
  • Originals returned
  • True to the original: every face checked by a person

Family Chest

For a family’s worth of albums, home before the day.

R25 000
  • 300 favourites restored, dated and named
  • Everything in Keepsake, plus:
  • Arranged by year and by person
  • The Reveal Kit
  • Home before the day, our date promise

Heirloom Chest

For the whole family story, told by the family’s storyteller.

R40 000
  • 500 favourites restored, dated and named
  • Everything in Family, plus:
  • A bound photo book of the family story
  • A framed A3 print of the best photo
  • Memory sticks for up to 4 sibling households
  • The Storyteller Session: we visit the family’s storyteller (Gauteng and Cape Town), pack the chest with them, and record them naming the people and telling the stories

We confirm a firm quote once we see what’s in your chest. You’ll never pay more than your tier unless you add photos.

Every chest includes the engraved chest, the memory stick, a three-month download link and insured courier collection.

Add-ons
Duplicate prints Enlargements Extra book Extra sibling stick Storyteller Session (on Keepsake or Family) Extra photos Rush
Added to your quote.
Our guarantee

Three promises, in writing.

1

The First Look Promise

If you don’t love your first 10 restored photos, we send everything back, insured, you don’t owe the balance, and you keep your chest.

2

True to the original

A person checks every restored face against the original. If one doesn’t look like the person in the photo, we redo it, or give you the straight repair instead.

3

Home before the day

Tell us your date when you reserve. We’ll check it against your chest and our queue, and confirm in writing whether we can make it. If we miss a date we’ve confirmed, we refund R5 000.

The Christmas Chest

Christmas is when the albums come out.

Give the chest itself: engraved, under the tree, with a gift card. The family fills it together over the holidays, we collect it in January, and everything comes home restored.

Order by 31 October for Christmas delivery.

Founding families

We only take a few families a month, because a person checks every photo.

For our first families: your price locked for future add-ons, first access to the filmed family interview when it launches, and a free framed print. In return, we ask for a short testimonial and permission to show your before-and-afters.

Reserve your chest.

R5 000 deposit holds your place. Fully refundable until we engrave and send your chest. It comes off your final quote. The balance is due only after you’ve approved your First Look. Allow about [weeks to confirm] from when we collect your chest. You’ll pay securely on the next page.

Buying with your brothers and sisters? Split it, and everyone pays their share from one link.

{{ error }}

Payment link to come: this button will open the secure Yoco or PayFast page.

Split link to come: this will open a shared payment page your siblings can each pay into.

Questions

What families ask us.

What can I put in the chest?+

Printed photos of any size, colour or black and white, photo albums (including the sticky kind), school and studio portraits, and Polaroids. If photos won’t come out of an album safely, we scan them in place. Letters, certificates and documents are coming soon. We don’t take slides, negatives, video tapes, audio cassettes, CDs or DVDs today, though we may in future. Digital files may come later, on a USB stick or drive. We don’t take phones, tablets, computers or other devices, because of passwords and privacy. See the full list.

Do I have to choose the photos?+

No. Put everything in. We include stickers, so if there are photos you love most, put a sticker on them and we’ll restore those first. If you don’t mark any, we choose the best of them for you.

What if I don’t like the results?+

That’s what the First Look is for. You see 10 restored photos before we do the rest. If you don’t love them, we send everything back, insured, you don’t owe the balance, and you keep your chest.

What if we don’t know birth years or who is in a photo?+

We send you a short form for names and birth years, so tell us what you know. We use that to date each photo as closely as we can and to name the faces you’ve identified. If no one knows, we leave it blank rather than guess.

How does the Storyteller Session work, and is the recording private?+

We visit the family’s storyteller at home (in Gauteng and Cape Town): a mother, father, grandparent, aunt or uncle, whoever knows the stories. We pack the chest with them and record them naming the people and telling the stories. We record only with their consent, handle it under POPIA, and keep it with the family’s archive. It’s included in Heirloom and can be added to Keepsake or Family.

How do I get the digital copies?+

On a Memory Chest 128 GB memory stick, packed in the chest. We also email a download link that works for three months, so you can copy everything to your computer and phone. There’s no online library to log in to.

What happens to my photos and details?+

We handle your photos and personal information in line with POPIA. We use them only to restore your photos, we never share or sell them, and you can ask us to delete our copies at any time. Our privacy policy has the details.

How does the deposit work?+

R5 000 deposit holds your place. Fully refundable until we engrave and send your chest. After that, it covers the chest and courier, and it comes off your final quote. We confirm a firm quote once we’ve seen what’s in the chest, and the balance is due only after you’ve approved your First Look. If you don’t love your First Look, we send everything back, you don’t owe the balance, and you keep your chest.