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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mirana, post: 9569193, member: 79705&quot;]I held off on this one for a long time but in the end thought I could rescue her, so submitted a lower offer and brought her here from Australia. </p><p><br /></p><p>A Halloween Horror.... but follow along if you find cleaning oddly satisfying. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie93" alt=":vamp:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459504[/ATTACH]</p><p>Extremely foul <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie102" alt=":yuck:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> with what I could tell was some loss and a patch job.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459505[/ATTACH]</p><p>Blackened 800 silver with the patch glob. I also spied an extremely faint signature in the original seller photo.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459506[/ATTACH]</p><p>First pass with dish soap in water and a soft toothbrush. The white is possibly Byne&#039;s but I think it was more likely a residue from the glob, which I think is hardened wax.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459507[/ATTACH]</p><p>Cleaned up the residue with a white rubber eraser cut to a detail accommodating sliver. I used a light touch with dental picks to encourage tougher debris out of crevices. Most satisfying, I used the picks to gently remove the glob that had covered up a leaf and all the shell past her nose. I leveled it out to the surface of the shell. She doesn&#039;t have any major surface cracks (the 2 you can see are on the back and not near this area) so I felt I could go this far. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459508[/ATTACH]</p><p>Final result! I painted the surface of the wax glob with water-soluble watercolor so it blends to the shell color and is removable if need be (in the case of accidental over paint). I was prepared to have her turn out to not be as finely carved as I thought in my imagination under all that grime and who-knows-how-bad damage, but I&#039;m so pleased with what I found. It was worth the effort I think. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459509[/ATTACH]</p><p>I polished the silver and it sparkles now. I left the glob on back as I don&#039;t think it&#039;s worth it to remove it and it might actually be performing a bit of stabilization. It&#039;s also an interesting (to me) look at how someone might try an old repair. Now that the back is clean, you can clearly see the signature.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]459510[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>In the seller&#039;s photos I could really only make out the supposed downward flourish and first &quot;letters&quot; in front of that, so I thought it might be another &quot;Silz&quot; but now I can see the whole thing, it doesn&#039;t have his &quot;S&quot;. I&#039;m also not sure which way is up. The flurish/G has the strongest pressure so may be the beginning of the sig, even though it makes it &quot;upside down&quot; to the cameo. &quot;Good&quot;? &quot;P_ _ lz&quot;? No idea. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie51" alt=":hilarious:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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