From an Amsterdam 'Excavation'

April 8

What happens when an old restoration breaks? Sometimes you want to save it as part of the history of the object.

Here is an interesting blue-glazed buff earthenware charger bought in Holland which is almost 35% plaster restoration. 

This restoration might have been done about a hundred years ago and I would say it was a nice restoration. 

Then, the charger was broken into fragments again. Whoever tried to repair it was not finding it very easy to glue together the plaster restoration. Perhaps a few people attempted it with various glues.

So, what do you do now? The plaster is very nicely shaped with nice replication of the pie-crust edge and embossed punts. Before I did some surface cleaning on the majolica fragments, the blue colour looked well matched.

I'll be posting progress on this object as I treat it. The first step will be to remove paint and shellac from the original material. Then it will be stabilized - the joins, both majolica and plaster, will be reinforced and filled.

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April 15

This 2nd picture shows the same charger surface-cleaned, reinforced, filled and the plaster repair re-saturated on the surface. 

The change of vibrancy of colour is perhaps not as marked in real life. The lighting and camera used were different, I must admit; but there is a marked improvement in detail both on the original material and the repair. The surface dirt had been giving it a sickly cast.

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April 22

Here's the charger after touching up the in-fill and an overall microwax.

Fireplace Surrounds

A few years back I was asked to help with the production of two new fireplace surrounds for a home renovation. A box of assorted Victorian tiles landed on my doorstep and I was to clean and mend scorched tiles that were prised off an old fireplace. It was quite the assortment.

After we had a final count of tiles, it was realized that many more fireplace-grade tiles of the same size and 'depth' or width would have to be found.

I realized that this wouldn't look right unless the new tiles were English, from the same era (Aesthetic Movement) and had similar transfer-decorated motifs, style and colours. The tiles were largely floral in various colours - some very emphatic! They tended to be geometric rather than realistic. So, English fireplace grade transfer non-embossed Aesthetic Movement Victorian tiles.

It was EBay to the rescue! After many false starts, I found dealers in England who had boxes of mixed tiles in storage and often had two of the same type.

The computer was useful in making tiny virtual tiles that I could move around on digital versions of the fireplace drawings. Above is one of the fireplaces with an assortment of 'provided' and 'aquired' tiles.

Huaco Jaguar Vessel

Disaster struck recently when a workman blundered into a beautiful Peruvian jaguar vessel at the home of a collector.

When an object is in so many pieces it is always difficult to get a perfect fit again. You can see from the bottom that there was considerable material loss on one side.

The same view with the in-fill toned to be less obvious.

The finished piece.