Featured Old Gilded Plaster Picture Frame (Mold help?)

I picked up this old picture frame for $3 today, thinking it was a steal. It's plaster over wood. It didn't occur to me until I got home that the green streaks on the side (and the black dots) weren't paint, but rather were probably mold. Blegh. Any ideas how I can save the frame, or how old it might be?

 

Hi,
Just wipe down with rubbing alcohol. It is a wonderful frame and a great price.
greg

 

Thanks, Greg. I was a little worried that I'd have to toss it out. I've always loved those ornate old picture frames and wanted one myself, so I got a little too eager putting it in my cart. I didn't even think to consider that it might have a mold problem.

 

It's great! Be careful with rubbing alcohol, I use it to remove paint sometimes so it might take the paint/gilt off. Maybe test it first. How about setting it in the sun?

 

Are you sure it is mold and not fly specks?

@gregsglass
Is rubbing alcohol different from denatured alchohol?

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/caring-for-your-gold-and-ormolu/
https://www.google.com/search?q=methylated+spirit&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

 

They might be fly specks. I haven't heard of that until now. But there are so many spots on the sides of the frame, I'm just worried it's mold.

 

I'll try that first, I think. I live in Arizona, so we get a lot of sun here.

 

You will be amazed at what sun will do for mold. Definitely go that route first. Often flood victims save a lot of their belongings using sunlight.

 

Sunlight and a damp rag afterward may well do the trick.

 

Hi Pat,
Rubbing alcohol and denatured alcohol are the same thing. I am just showing my age. I use cheap vodka for the same thing.
greg

 

My brother lives in Arizona and it's usually about this time of year he starts bragging about the weather there as it's cold and blustery here in VA. Of course all of AZ isn't warm....Scottsdale...pretty much.

 

In winter it's nice in Phoenix and Scottsdale, but in summer it's basically hell on earth. 115+ degree days.

 

AAAAAAACCCKKK!!!!!

 

Think 1880s-90s.

 

A number of years back I was there visiting when it was 117°, hot and dry, of course 100° degrees and humid in VA....toss up as to which feels worse. Now this last summer he called to tell me it was 122° at his house so I think that might win.

 

Arizona.....mold....??
Mold usually likes dark damp places.....and creeps.....
I'm not seeing it....
maybe the beginning of dry rot...???
It's a stunning frame and worth saving...

 

I bought it up in Flagstaff, where it rains and snows in the winter

 

Yeah, it's stamped 18(something, something) on the back, so I was hoping it was from the 1800s.

 

It was downright parka/scarf/long johns/mittens/fur hat COLD in Phoenix today with a temp of 56 degrees for a high.

 

...He says to someone whose daily high got up to about 35....and it felt pretty decent.