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Hello friends. I'm looking for some technical advice on the cleaning of gilt. I recently bought a nice Satsuma vase with some areas where the solid gilt banding seems to be almost totally coated in some kind of filth that has turned the appearance in those areas to an olive-like greenish color. Here are some pictures where you can see the gold underneath that is exposed in some places. What is a safe way to clean off this grime so I can make this thing shine the way it was intended to without damaging the gilt? Also, I'm a bit baffled as to how much dirt accumulated onto this thing and how that even could happen, especially since the other areas which also have tons of gilt seem to be totally clean. Thanks for any insights or tips you can provide! John
Hey John,
The coating or whatever it is, looks to have aged or oxidized, but also looks like it scrapes off. I have had luck with bamboo chopsticks for scraping, but just bee really careful, even though the gilding is rather sturdy it can come off. I would also maybe try some nail polish remover with a qtip and maybe even 70-90% alcohol... just being careful to wipe it off and neutralize it with water on a cloth in case more than what you want decides to come off, and work in really small sections. I would try that before scraping manually, also a small wood dowel, though not hard wood might make a good scraper, you want something that is softer than what you are scraping basically.
If that doesn't work, I have just burnished gilding with a soft calfskin scrap I have, think fine Italian ladies leather gloves for softness, nothing rough. and apply a bit of paste wax to the leather and without much pressure, work in small sweeps, in whichever direction, you want the burnish to run.
Good luck, and I'd love to see the whole piece, from the small pics it looks quite nice.
Cheers,
Jeremy
To be safe, I'd recommend trying a wet cloth, one with a suede microfiber texture if you have one lying around.
Also, you have a very nice satsuma! Is it signed by any chance?
Clifford
@khoi there is no signature visible. However the base has had a repair and it looks as thought it was painted/enamelled over, so I'm curious what might be under that.
I hate to say it, but that dirty gilding looks like paint to me. Looks like someone tried to fix worn gilding by painting over it with gold paint.
Charles
@kirby13 From what I can tell so far it seems most of the gilt is still in tact underneath, so I don't think it was overpainted to hide gilt loss.
@jbeer2121 So far I have tried nail polish remover and alcohol, but scraping with a finger nail seems to be the most effective method so far. Although it gets into some areas with raised enamels so I can't really scrap safely there. I wonder if there is something I could soak it in? or do you think i could scrub it with some type of brush? or what about using some type of natural vegetable oil?
@johnshoe If you are picking it off with a finger nail then be sure to use your nail brush when you wash your hands afterwards and keep your hands away from your mouth, just in case it contains lead. I tell my husband that it is a gracious wonder that we have a brain cell between us with all we were exposed to as children in the fifties.
I hadn't even thought about the lead possibility, so thanks for caring enough to mention it. I did wash my hands an extra time due to your advice. It takes a village!
John, I had a Japanese vase that was covered with a similar kind of gold paint for no obvious reason. I was advised on here not to remove it, but the vase had very little value so I went ahead using my nails and very fine wire wool. The hidden areas seemed to be perfectly fine, so I had no idea why it was painted like that. It didn't add anything to the decoration, quite the opposite. I don't have it anymore, just after I had finished my husband knocked it onto the tiled floor.
I will look to see later if I kept photos so you can compare the overprinting.
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