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Debra

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Hello!  I'm not sure if this is the right forum or web site for this question, but...  I have an old bone china tea set (c. 1920) whose tea pot has some worn gold gilding, both on the edge and on the outside decorative pattern.  Is any repair possible?  Are gilding pens or paints food safe?  Would I be trashing the value of the tea pot?  Thanks for any advice or thoughts...

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There are people who do this at antique repair shops. If you want to do this yourself, you require a tiny bottle of gold lustre. The gold is applied by banding it on with a very small water colour brush. DO NOT WASH THE BRUSH AFTER USE!

Gold lustre is about $23.00 dollars for an extremely tiny jar.

I beleive it fires at cone 012. Look on the jar lable. I have some in my studio, but it is late, and I am inside for the night.

TJR.

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Guest JBaymore

Most gold is in the small cone 020 range.

 

If this piece is antique and valuable.... you'd best have someone who specializes in restoration take care of it.  And sometimes "restoring" such pieces actually decreases their value.

 

best,

 

................john

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As promised, I went into my studio and found the tiny bottle of gold lustre. No where on the bottle does it say what cone to fire to. I know that it is very low-cone020,or cone022.

Just hot enough to adhere it to the cup. Good advice from John. Go with an expert.

TJR.

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Thanks very much, John and TJR, for your trouble and information.  Well, given that I don't actually own a kiln, if the lustre needs to be fired at all, even at a very low temperature, then I need to go to an expert.  But John is probably right, too, that perhaps I should leave it as it is.  It's a 1920 Royal Crown Derby teapot.  I don't know that I care so much about the material "value"--it's really a piece that I live with and use--but I also don't want to wreck it, or have it wrecked.  That said, I'm finickity about detail and good with my hands (I paint and draw in diminutive detail...) and I have not been pleased with the last two things I had repaired by "experts"--a fancy shmancy place in Philadelphia repaired a broken china bowl, charged an arm and a leg, and did a crummy job.  So, too, with an oriental rug repair which deprived me of my other arm and leg and repaired a bit of damaged fringe by just sewing a patch of fringe instead of re-weaving, and I thought, GAWL, if I'd known that THAT was what they were going to do, I would have done it myself, as I did with some cloisonné repair, which at least is invisible.  The trick is finding the right expert (and having the money to spend, too, alas).  Thanks again!

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