Featured Help with ID if real marble sculptures

Are they equally easy to scratch? What did you use to test: fingernail? knife/metal?

Maybe nothing here, since 2 or 3 of the proposed stones would react to it, but in my world people use it as one test for determining whether something is calcium carbonate based or not.

 

Hi they will not scratch with a fingernail. But will with the tip of a knife. Has alabaster got the glitter look ? Both these have that glitter affect under light. Thanks again.

 

I know marble can have, but haven't seen enough alabaster (there are 2 stones that are commonly called alabaster, one softer than the other) up close to know if it also has that grainy, sugary quality. My impression is that it does not. We need one of our members who knows minerals better than I do.

 

Ok

That's great is there anyone I could ask I'm particular? Thanks again

 

I'm no minerals expert, but I've always loved both alabaster and marble sculptures, the latter I prefer, of course!

All 3 pieces look like marble to me, not alabaster. Additionally, I believe alabaster in a dirty shop would look much more filthy - @David 90 - other than brushing them off, did you clean these with water or anything?

What type of work shop did the wood worms love ?

 

Thanks for the information. I didn't clean as didn't want to make things worse. That's why I don't over clean things I have found metal detecting. You end up making it worse . Oh and the workshop was used for textiles a long time ago. And has been used to store the furniture. But now I'm about to start using it as my workshop. I just need to treat it to rid the woodworm. I still can't believe they eat wicker furniture. Went to move it and it almost turned to dust lol.

 

Just as well. Found this when I was trying to figure out how to clean an unpolished marble statue I have. Pretty much scared me off touching it at all:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/cleaning-marble/

 

Both pieces look like marble to me with these micro cristalline sparkles

 

If you mean grainy, it can be, yes.

From wiki and I didn't read it all. Appears to be a calcite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabaster

Also from wiki "Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate."
So the vinegar interacts with alabaster.

I'm pretty sure I used vinegar and salt to try and remove stains from a marble table top. It was years ago and I just went to verify that was a method that would have been used. Now all I can find is Don't use vinegar on marble.
Yet I'm almost positive that's what I used - No bubbling.

Maybe @gregsglass will know if vinegar interacts with marble.

 

Marble is metamorphic limestone, so calcium carbonate based. (Geologists only apply the word 'alabaster' to the softer, gypsum-related material, not to the harder calcite type.) Under the right conditions it can develop an incrustation similar to the 'Byne's Disease' that can afflict sea- & eggshells.

As the V&A article starts by saying, you have to decide the importance of the object & your own priorities before starting a cleaning treatment. Museum conservators are responsible for preserving items for generations to come; they don't like to lose a single molecule of something, so favor very conservative methods. There may not have been any overt bubbling, but an application of acetic acid & salt probably did the job by removing some of the marble too. I had a degree of success when I tried baking soda toothpaste on some patches of my sculpture, rubbed in with a finger, removed with a damp sponge. She's now under a loosely fitting dry cleaner bag to prevent picking up any further grunge.

I don't know if she's looking at non-urgent e-mail right now, but Holly Trusted at the V&A has been very kind & generous to me. She would be someone to ask about any possible historical importance of these pieces.

 

[FLOAT_LEFT[/FLOAT_LEFT] great info I had some success with just rubbing with my fingers and some water. I just don't want to clean them in the wrong way and end up regretting. I appreciate your knowledge and advice.

 

Good idea not to over-clean, I ruined a piece of alabaster that way.

 

Nice! For a brief while some years ago I started collecting hands made out of all sort of material. Mostly ceramic or glass. The information here is inspirational... maybe I'll start looking again, once restrictions are lifted.

And welcome to Antiquers, @David 90 !

 

I don't have I Need Help's search skills so maybe that's why I'm finding very little on the Internet that is similar apart from Queen Victoria's collection. There are these, don't know if these people know what they're talking about or not:

https://blackmancruz.com/products/italian-carved-female-marble-hand-19th-c-1

I would take very good care of these pieces.

 

Oh wow that's something. And worth a pretty penny too I will handle with even more care lol thanks .

 

LOL : I bought my first glass hand in New York at a restaurant supply house!

 

Do you have a collection of them?

 

Not anymore, and I never had a marble hand! So jelly!
I noticed I still have one of those inexpensive cobalt blue glass hands (perhaps it is a ring holder?) on my kitchen window sill! I thought I'd sold them all of my extra hands at my last garage sale for my shop a few years back!