Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Recent Restorations

The restoration work has been going on at a steady pace but I've not posted recent work mostly because I've failed to take the pre-restoration pictures that make for a good before and after posting. I often find myself inspecting and assessing the relics then before I know it I'm several steps into the work having neglected to take the pictures that document the original condition. I just have to get better at that. Below are examples of this.

The 6th NC plate only required the re-attachment of the hooks and solder simultation. Straightforward work for an incredible relic. Note the remnants of black enamel paint on the buckle's back. This also fills the face in the negative relief areas.

The Texas buckle was broken in several pieces and had been fixed by someone else but whoever did the work was sloppy. They left shiny glue globs showing all over the relic. The reason the star was cut from the plate was because the waist belt plate became unserviceable to the soldier, having lost the attachment hooks. Confederates often utilized what they could from the plates and in this case the star probably became a hat piece. As much as I was tempted to deconstruct the relic and rebuild, I was asked only to remove the epoxy glue and touch up to match the buckle's patina.

The Texas star hat piece (never part of a plate) was missing the lower right arm as you view it front side and lower left when viewing the back (soldered side). I fabricated the missing arm from an excavated piece of period jewelry that the owner provided. You can see that the star was probably folded up badly when originally recovered. If you can imagine it, those bends and creases were even more ugly and prominent prior to the work I performed.

As-Dug North Carolina Plate 
After hooks attached
Solder-filled back
Front of plate showing breaks
Solder-filled stamped star
Solder-filled back
Detail showing loop attachment