The Historic District

Look what upper management bought us for my birthday. A pair of mid Victorian peg lamps.

They would date from about 1870. The faunt has silver ormolu painted flowers. The pierced shades date about 1900 from the Gorham silver company but we're actually plated when new.

Gorgeous!

I guess I missed a birthday notice, so happy belated as well.

Lily, thanks. I would like to untarnish the silver ormolu but am afraid to touch it for fear of it coming off. The picture is a bit dark but when the sun light hits them they look a lot brighter.
Oh, and like all my lamps they ready to to be lit should we want to. And Mick, once again it won't be this week either.

Gothichome wrote:And Mick, once again it won't be this week either.

tsk tsk tsk... find yourself some clean K1 kero (the stuff they use for heaters without dye in it) - you will thank me once you light one

there is a trick for cleaning silverware in the dishwasher you put a powder in there and I forget which powder was to be used. then you put the silverware in with an aluminum sheet. Its sort of a weak electrolysis process that cleans them, not scrubbing. I dont' know if it's good to recommend it without more research and opinions but I dont' think it took a lot of the silver away like you might with silver polish and of course those shades are too complicated to scrub with silver polish.. so far as the silver "patina" I guess you have to decide if you want them shiny or not or if that is destructive.

I am seeing some comments that you shouldn't combine silver plate and stainless items in a dishwasher because of a different electrolysis that could cause black spots. It occurred to me that some have dishwashers with stainless racks so I guess that might do the same. I see some conflicting results in searching for the process. some comments say that you shouldnm't clean silverware that has stainless blades and silver handles because of the same reaction.

The process Im referring to used a powder. maybe it was baking soda you use. the idea was that it would clean the silver plate using a weak electrolysis process and an aluminum sheet (or some aluminum foil) was part of the process. It might be best to read up more before trying this but maybe others have heard the trick I describe.
i also read you shouldn't expose silverware to high heat in the dishwasher as they may have some materials in the knife handles that don't have much resistance to heat.
I think I'd normally wash silver plate carefully by hand not in the dishwasher as all the vibrations wear stuff . It was a process to revive the shine in the places you cant' scrub and not something you'd do to clean the dishes after each use.
As with other antiques you may not want to polish them or maybe it's ok since they were meant to be shiny silver. You'd have to decide that. Maybe Mick would have thoughts on that since he's the resident expert on antique lighting here..
obviously if it's silver plate the silver is micro thin so you dont' wan to do anything aggressive.

Those are beautiful lamps !

Phil, yes, I am aware of the aluminium trick to cleaning plate. Done it many times on our cheap electroplated tea pots and the such. The trick is in the softness of the water. Adding salt to the water will increase the electrolytic properties of the water and it works faster. Many folks will baulk at the concept of dipping your silver plated stuff because you are removing silver. But at the near give away prices of cheap plate, when your down to base material. You just donate it back to the Sally Anne.

I think those lamps look great as they are. Feeling envious GH!

If i was tempted to try to bring that silver up the most I think I would do is a light burnish with a very soft cloth. I would be too worried about removing or thinning any of it I think

Well folks as mentioned in another thread, here is a the fire place insert we bought a few years ago,

Here is what it looks like now
,
And the space heater I fab'd onto it.

Removed the gas insert stuff from the old insert, just the front now. Not bad for $40 Canuck bucks I think.

Really beautiful, and interesting (and likely sensible) choice to put in the space heater.

Photobucket is the devil;) it took all the details away!