As you can see, this bug is in need of lots of TLC. The pink stone is in excellent condition but there is lots of verdigris and goop. Missing a bunch of small stones and some of the enamel is chipped. I thought I read on a post some time back that there was a person on the boards that did restoration work on costume pieces and was wondering if it would be better to just leave it alone and sell as is or invest in restoration?
If you can do it yourself, it would be a wonderful project. The person you mean is @kyratango , aka the bug lady. She can advise you on what to do.
What a wonderful bug! I cannot help in any way in restoration, I just admire the detailed and exquisite make of this piece. Impressive!
Yes, Kyra will want to see this as she is not only a repair genius but a bug lover! @baltojoe75 I'm sure you've seen this one on Worthpoint. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-coro-craft-sterling-huge-pink-1806690579 There are a ton of rhinestones missing on yours, and the person who fixes this is going to need an arsenal of stones exactly the right size. I think that is what is tricky here. You don't want the repaired rhinestones sticking up higher than others, etc. Also I wonder what happened to it to create the loss of all the stones. Is it bent at all? Obviously the value takes a huge hit due to condition. If you pay for a restoration, you really need to declare that it's been restored in your sale, and I think that cuts some of the value. Plus you've got the expense for the restoration. It's a great piece and awesome that the glass is perfect. If it was mine I'd sell "As Is". Others may have different thoughts. Cool find. I think it would find a buyer.
It's not bent. It was in a bag of costume jewelry that had a lot of pieces that were affected with the greenies. I think the condition it was stored in - just jammed into a bag with a zillion other things created the loss. I reached out to the bug lady for her input.
@Lucille.b I saw the worthpoint pictures but I don't have a subscription so I wasnt able to see the price.
Wow! Not my area of expertise but for verdigris, vinegar on cotton bud then scraping with wooden toothpick will clean it. The repair person for these high costume jewellery is Sandy Campbell, @KSW can give you her contact I think (she blocked me)
If you are selling clean the verdigris off (careful not to damage the enamel) and sell as is, making sure to highlight all of its positive and negative attributes. If it's for yourself to keep, that's a different story. Maybe if you decide to tackle it yourself there are rhinestones in the rest of the bag of jewelry that you can scavenge?
There are a Lot of missing rhinestones. For those of you who attempt repairs, can a generous back of Swarovski crystals be purchased somewhere? Also, why did so many fall out? Was it due to cleaning with water? I'd give restoration a try if this were mine and then I'd keep it. It's so beautiful and interesting.
I'm probably going to just clean it up a bit and sell it as is. I'm sure the stones fell out because of a combination of being bumped, smashed etc in the bag and there were probably pieces in there that can cause the glue to fail. I have seen verdigris destroy an entire box of jewelry. It spreads like cancer.
