Makers Marks, references. FOR FREE!

Hello one and all again. I've discovered through internet research that a lot of makers marks sights are restricted, you want the makers marks? well, pay a subscription fee. I am not really on board with this idea, sure, it's a good way to earn a little but in the long run it just makes people angry in not being able to access once free information. In the next couple of weeks I will be compiling links to websites and a lot of my own personal references.

Enjoy.

Here's the first lot from Italy. Book reference, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain by Warren E Cox. first published, 1944. great book.

Art Deco bronze by Pierre Le Faguays, 1925.

Greetings all. You may have seen that I have been restoring a bronze Deco sculpture recently (photos in last post). Her name is Diana and she was made in 1925, in Paris, France. She was part of a series that was released by Susse Freres Foundry and she made it all the way to Australia.
She has been outdoors for about 40 years under the harsh Australian climate and I'm actually surprised that she hasn't been completely obliterated. She has all her detailing still and only has one area of contact rust. This helped me to no end.

Anyways, here is the finished piece, ready for another 200 years of whatever. I am told that she will having a holiday indoors for quite a time.

Dianas' bow had been snapped off due to the original steel pinning inside the bronze, which was acting as support, finally rusted away.
I had to drill out the corroded metal and replace it with, originally, stainless steel pins that were 2.5cms long and seated within a 2 part epoxy putty. I thought this would work. Nope, it didn't. The pins were too short and the epoxy was good, but not good enough. I had to rethink how to make everything more stable.

As you can see, the corrosion had become a problem. I was hoping that the stainless steel pins would support the bows weight.

I went and bought some marine standard threaded stainless rod from a local supplier and some two part steel reinforced polymer putty and went about repairing the repair. I had to take the original smaller pins out, re drill and and reset everything. I was extremely happy with the wider rod and it's resetting within the better putty. In the end I tapped the piece with a peening hammer and the whole sculpture rang like a bell.

I had to restring the bow though.

This process was the undoing of the original set up. Working at the end of the bow added pressure to the settings and eventually cracked the original putty seats. There was also the fact that a piece of the original "string" was still attached although someone had tried to restring it later on. It was wonky. I had to hammer out the bronze string to re-straighten it which was nerve racking due to parts of it falling to pieces due to corrosion. Thankfully I was left with enough of the original string to be able to reattach it with newer wire which I then aged.

Happier with the new setting.

Ignore the Unicorn.

Well, she's finished. Diana was a challenge and, once again, I learnt some new tricks of the trade.

Thanks for dropping by again, stay tuned.

Some photos of current work.

Once again, it has been raining antiques. This is a good thing but rather bad when comes to wriring about said antiques, Apologies again.

Here's some photos for you with a few words....

Art Deco bronze by Pierre Le Faguays, Susse Foundry, 1925.

The Art Deco bronze sculpture had her bow snapped off and needed to be reattached without harming the patina and verdigris. I drilled out the corroded core supports, added stainless steel pins that were fixed with two part marine epoxy. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Finished restoration.

The bronze censor lid with the Shishi dog was missing an ear, so thus I had to make one. It was pretty difficult tweaking the metal paints to get the final bronze effect. Adding the verdigris was a pain as well.

Bronze Shishi censor lid. General shaping for the ear before shaping and carving.

Finished ear. I later tweaked the patina a bit more but forgot to take some photo.

Here's some Meiji and Edo period plates and chargers that I have to repair all the chips, knicks and general wear and tear from the past 200 years or so, 14 of them...

The current bane of my life.

Massive Shiwan piece that needed some cosmetic repairs (below). General clean and a few repairs to the hair band, fingernails and toenails. Beautiful piece that was a pleasure to work on

Shiwan statue, 30 kgs and roughly a meter in height.

And finally, for now, a photo of a happily filled work studio. Thanks again for dropping by, hope you enjoyed the looksee....