Featured Restoring Brass

Ghopper-I tried to look this piece up last night & came up zero.I found Parker Lamps but no stands-do these turn-up occasionally or were they exclusively 'made to order' ?
The floral motifs & dancing (Romani ?) lady are breathtaking.Someone in the U.S. is a virtuoso at this type of refurbishment-finding a true master's the trick.Museum affiliation & previous work are key.

 

If it were me, I would "make do" with whatever I could on this stand. A good cleaning with mild detergent wouldn't hurt for starters. It looks like the majority of it is brass and you would likely get fairly good results with careful polishing. As an aside, why does it look like copper to me? That then leaves those lovely panels which (IMHO) would be difficult. I would try a good cleaning and see how they look. But if I could get even minor results on the panels, I would be happy. As long as you do no harm, you could continue looking for a professional for the panels. Unless you think another like this will come along later, I wouldn't dis it for a little wear and tear. But that's me and you're the one who will be looking at it every day (lucky you!).

 

In true Victorian fashion many of these parts were used for more than one purpose. I’ve seen the dancing girl also used in the base of a piano lamp. Both are credited to Charles Parker, but there is some thought that parts may have been made by Meriden and sold unlabeled to Parker. Many of these brass firms were in Connecticut, and there was some back and forth with pieces. I imagine these stands were expensive even then, so there were not a lot of buyers, although I don’t know if you could say they were “made to order.”

I would think any restorer here in the US would likely be far away, causing much expensive crating and postage, not to mention the cost of restoration.

 

The photo does make the brass look like copper, I agree. That may be the lighting, or maybe there was a coloring agent used in the brass finish.
Unfortunately I doubt that another one of these will come up any time soon.

 

There's a person who frequently contributes to this board who says,

"Nothing haunts us like the antique we didn't buy!" LOL! Just pulling your chain.

 

Ha! Good one!!

 

Ghopper-Yr 'Dog W/ Pipe' cabinet Card avatar is great ! Is he a black Lab or a mutt ?

 

It’s been too long since I acquired it……I don’t remember!!!