A Casket for Christmas

This Christmas I was able to continue the tradition of giving my young cousin a jewelry box as a Christmas gift.   As usual, the requirement was for it to be something unique that you wouldn't find anywhere else.   That usually brings me to flea markets...

It turns out August was a good month.  A new dealer showed up at the open market and had something interesting that I just had to have.   A beautiful metal box on legs with a rose on it.  Of course it needed some TLC, but I'd never seen anything similar before.   Sold!  Renaissance

Box in it's original condition

This one would definitely need some elbow grease.

Some internet searching identified this as a casket style jewelry box.  The inside of these boxes - rather than being lined along the edges - is puffy like a pillow (or a casket) on the inside.    I was able to use one web site to date this piece to the 1920's.   The inside is a pastel rather than a dark or red color - and the silver exterior was all tarnished off (They didn't learn to electroplate better until the 40's - so if you find a shiny one, it's a newer copy...)

Box before cleaning - with the good camera and a nice background

Even though this needed some work, the detail was amazing.  

But hard work was ahead of me.   I have to again  thank Ann of the NBSS Jewelry program for helping me out for the second year in a row.   For the second year in a row I brought a jewelry box to the NBSS open house to get some advice on how to restore the piece.   While last years box was cleaned with Brasso and NevrDull, this year I was introduced to Rouge Cloth for polishing.

Even before cleaning, the detail was still a highlight of the piece

And polish I did.   As you can tell this piece had lots of nooks and crannies, so a small section each night.    The detail took a lot of time.  I did sneak a little NevrDull and tooth pick into some corners I just couldn't get into with the cloth.   But not getting every little spot turned out to be nice - there's enough black here and there to bring out the design.  

The finished product, polished, sealed,  and ready for delivery

The 'unclean-able' black that remains adds character and helps emphasize the design

The top detail looks quite different after a good cleaning.

The interior needed some work as well.   Someone tried to repair the interior lining with regular white glue.    ugh.   Who would do that.   Luckily, it was regular white glue.   A little dab of water and began to soften.  So another few nights to soften some flue, then gently tweezer it out without damaging the lining....

I didn't polish the bottom much - I wanted to keep that in something of an original state to see where I started.   There was some ID on the bottom - the initial JB and the number 1187.   Probably leads back to the manufacturer, but I've found nothing on line to help me...

The bottom of the piece.  Identification marks?

As you can see, the finished product came out amazing.   Sealed with some Renaissance wax, I hope it stays in good condition for years to come.

Interior of the box, with the 'casket' like puffy padding.

Safely in the hands of the new owner.  I think she likes.   :)

You can see a few more Jewelry Box photos in my Flickr Album.

Jewelry Box

I picked up a jewelry box for my cousin;  and a nice purchase turned into a months long effort....

For a few years now I've been buying my cousin little boxes for Christmas.   Just little things I might find at antique stores or flea markets.   But I want them to be unusual - something you might never see anywhere else.   Usually older items that contain craftsmanship not used any more.  Previous ones were a small box of solid marble. A wooden box with mother-of-pearl flower inlays.  A hand-made stained glass box with a shell embedded into the top as part of the glasswork.

So I saw this brass jewelry box in October.   I liked the decorations on the lid, and the unique two-compartment opening, so I picked it up.  



It didn't really look bad.  A nice patina on it.   Could have been a nice gift as is.   Except.   In the upper right there was some dirt.   I didn't think it would be hard to remove.   but when I did remove it - underneath was shiny.  The dirt has protected the finish.  Now I had a nice shiny bright spot.    There was no choice but to clean the whole thing.



So some Brasso and elbow grease, I started.   (At least I had a few months to work on it).  You can see above the bright shiny spot in the upper right.   The front (bottom of the photo) shows me beginning work.

So lots of on-and-off working on the box for the next 2 months.  The top was easiest.   Q-tips and toothpicks helped clean the two feathers.     The box edges were a challenge working round the hinges.   And of course trying to polish the piece but not damage the delicate feet.    There were some places that I couldn't get clean.  A friend recommend using some thinner - turns out they still had their protective coating on those spots, so thinner cleared most of those spots off.

Also a thanks to the folks at North Bennett.  I took the box to their open house and got some helpful recommendations.   They steered me to NevrDull to give it a second round of polish after the Brasso.   They also recommended Renaissance Wax as a sealer.   Just handling the box was turning into a problem, as just my fingerprint oils would leave tarnish marks after a few days.   My friend Sarah gave me some medical gloves that I used for now on so I wouldn't un-do my polishing efforts.  



Once polishing done, several coats of Wax and we were good to go.

Of course, the best part of hard work is giving it away.   She absolutely loved it!  Made all the hard work worth it.





Some more photos can be found on my Flickr album

Tools used:   Brasso, NevrDull, Renaissance Wax,  soft cloths, Qu-tips, toothpicks, medical gloves.