Aren’t the linear elements too straight; too consistent and too uniform to be from smoothing?
C~
Hi Jack,
sorry to labour the point, but can you confirm that a proper analysis has been done? as now at this late stage you mention it, if so who did it and when, and the results?? I quite often get queries where only half! of the story is told. Why didnt we know that an assay was done? you say ananalysis.
your response would be appreciated.
Ted.
Hi Vladimir just surface XRF. Fairly straightforward results with none of the usual suspects seen in some of the less sophisticated fakes. But, as said, all really I want to know from the practitioners out there is whether the cracking is indicative of a particular means of manufacture. To me the striations look like the striations on drawn wire and rod - never seen them that regular on filed or burnished stuff…
Thanks,
Jack
One pic looks like a poured or cast rod with file marks. The other pic that was put up later looks like drawn through a plate with striations along it. 2 different things going on there
Hi Jack,
Cracking a result of type of mf?
No, just a poor example of gold work by someone with very limited facilities or knowhow. Good you got the XRF.
What age do you place it ?
As a hands on maker of 50 yrs,one knows when an item is sub standard, and in my case only fit for destruction.
After all, I put my mark, my name ,the date and location on every piece ive ever made, in addition to any hall marks.
I have these hand stamps in 3 sets of sizes depending on the work size.
Even on a “Dark Ages” design cuff made in 316 18/8 stainless it gets the same marking as one in sterling.
I had a comission for a silver bowl, to replicate one id made in bronze.
The disk was 15in in dia by 1/8in thick and weighed 8.5lbs.
The client had from me,
,1. The purchase invoice from Johnson Matthey,
2. The assay office bill
3. my invoice for the work.
Provenance is important on an item that expensive.
Ted.
Are you saying that when your product includes a lot of expensive precious metal, you provide your customer with the invoice you received from your metal supplier? Why isn’t the assay sufficient? And why do you also give the customer the assay office bill?
Is the inclusion of those documents, for perhaps what costs you 2000 pounds sterling for the metal, a common procedure for silversmiths in the UK?
H Betty,
No, its not the normal rule, in fact there isnt any rule as to pricing etc. It just happened that the customer paid for the metal himself in this case so he was entitled to the invoice.
He also wanted the other documentation, he agreed to pay me what I asked for my work, going to the assay office getting it marked while I waited then brought it back here hidden! under my coat.
He had already bought 2 bronze bowls for his dining table and wanted the silver one to put in the middle.
The table was a mahogany Georgian one, double sabre legged with ball and claw brass feet. with several removeable leaves ,when extended some 10ft in length.
Very handsome in deed with the 3 bowls thereon.
Forging bowls etc is interesting for me, I went to the Victoria and Albert museum in London to see the exhibition toward a new iron age, where iron smiths were forging bowls from iron. I was working bronze at that time and said to myself id like to do that in my metals. so one starts with say a 6in dia by 1/16th in thick piece of copper and see what happens when you use a ball peen hammer on it. Then progress to larger dia’s and thicknesses and metals till one plucks up courage to hit the silver!. It was on my sideboard for about 2 weeks before I plucked up courage to tackle it. Then I moved on to doing the same in titanium, the curse of that metal is the almost impossibility of polishing it!. 3M had the only product that cut this without the balling up problem it was their 8in by 2in wide compressed scotchbrite wheel using 1000 grit silicon carbide as the abrasive in this wheel. then fire oxidising it to bring out its true beauty. The largest ive done is some 18in in dia. by 1/8in thick.
Ted
Ted.