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Before
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1740
London Sterling Punch Bowl
This 13", 114 troy oz. punch bowl was placed in a duffel bag and put in the cargo compartment on an airplane. This was the result from man-handling. |
The crack in the bowl body happened on a previously brazed area. Notice the loss of chased detail in the center of the bend. |
Major deformations in the base. |
The Repair Process... The bowl cracks were welded with sterling. |
The entire piece was annealed to to make it easier to remove the dents. |
Pulling out the base produced numerous breaks along the chased line. |
Since the sterling was so thick and difficult to manuver, I decided to remove the base from the stem to make it easier to repair. |
The bowl and base separated. |
Hammering the base back into shape and closing the splits with a wooden hammer. |
Additional dents were removed with a nylon hammer and sandbag to avoid altering the chasing. |
Another major split in the base that required welding and rechasing prior to reattaching to the stem. |
Applying the patina which will show off the flat chasing. |
The exterior fully patinated. |
Hand polishing the exterior to bring back the original luster. |
Below is the finished piece with some of the gilding still intact. The bowl did not result in a perfect restoration because the sterling had stresses that constantly resulted in cracks from dent removal which were then welded with sterling for a perfect color match. The customer was notified throughout the process of these unforeseen issues and what to expect to see upon completion. I consider this a repair as opposed to a restoration because the I could not bring back the original appearance prior to the damage. |