Dark Metal Menorah

I am wondering about this dark metal menorah. Do you think it's old? It's 5 & 1/4inches wide by 4 & 1/2 inches high and about 2 & 1/2 deep.

I am tempted to use silver polish on it. Do you think it's a good idea? It's slightly magnetic.

If it was old, would it be a sliver alloy that is slightly magnetic?

 

Dunno if this listing is accurate but...

Debora

 

I wonder what the metal is.

 

This is an interesting topic in jewelry, also. What's all this dark metal jewelry?

 

It looks like someone has tried to polish this... to no avail. (An old toothbrush can clear away the old polish residue.)

Is it magnetic? The design looks brutalist to me. I'd guess the date to be the 1960s.

Idle guess is that it's patinated bronze or brass. Persisting in trying to polish it might damage an intentional patina.

 

Yes, it's magnetic. Did you see the additional picture by Debora? It looks good. I wonder if its the same exact metal.

 

If it's magnetic, then it's ferrous - some form of iron.

The one Deborah shows looks to be brass or bronze.

I like the design of yours better.

 

Aren't they the exact same design?

Debora

 

Yes, same design. The pictures cut off the text in my original post. I fixed that.

 

Are they the same design? The second one looks stretched and flattened.

 

My bad. Did it again. Meant to post the link to etsy listing and... More photographs can be found here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1353597578/old-vintage-50s-brass-menorah-with-star

Debora

 

A lot of similarities for sure.

 

I can not help much with this but I wanted to add that recently etsy has squared off photos which can make them look a bit out of shape or distorted.
They decided that if a photo is squared off then buyers will hit the buy button more than if they are a rectangle.
Anywho, if it were me, I would let it be and not polish.

 

If it likes magnets, I'd think cast iron. My late dad used to make all sorts of machine parts out of it. I'd not be surprised if they cast some menorahs.

 

Darkened cast iron jewellery is only of interest to Antiquers if it is Berlin iron.

Any metal can be darkened. Which metal is used depends on the period and the type of jewellery.

 

I wonder if people would prefer it after cleaning with Brasso or left as is.

 

You may not have been around here long enough to know what a lot of us think of Brasso. There are no polite terms. The short answer is : N. O. to Brasso. Bin before using.

 

In my opinion, don't polish it. You can use a dry brush to clear off the polish residue that is on it. Any kind of polishing can damage an intentional patina.

 

Since I hate polishing, I say don't polish.

 

I'm a little late to this one, but... the originally posted menorah looks kind of coppery to me. I wonder whether it's made of some kind of copper-iron alloy? Or is there actually some silver coloring? I can't tell.