This is just a general question about how they went about gold gilting in clocks hundreds of yrs. Ago. I have like 5 different gilded clocks, couple japy freres, an Ivanhoe Waterbury, a Seth Thomas and they are all really worn. I got some rub n buff but not sure how to go about rubbing it on such detailed figurals will it come off heated from being rubbed? Seems I'd also have to use a brush to get in all the crevices and grooves.
Any advice?
Then my real question out of curiosity, I understand the process of how gold gilding works using the glue and sheets of gold but is that how they really did these? Seems an awful labor intensive way to do it. Or was there a way they dipped these figural to achieve it.
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You can distinguish bronze from spelter, also called white metal, an alloy using zinc, by scratching it in an inapparent area. Bronze will have a copper color, spelter a more silver color.
Spelter was used extensively towards the end of the 19th into the 20th century as a cheaper alternative to and imitator of bronze. Used for everything from clock cases to statues to mounts for furniture to grave markers (some place on the Forums I posted a salesman's sample of a cemetery memorial offered by the "White Bronze" company.
Gold finished bronze, bronze d'ore, was typically not gold leafed. It was fire gilded using a technique called ormolu which employed an amalgam of mercury and ground up high carat gold. The process was expensive, labor intensive, and due to Hg vapors, absolutely toxic to the workers. I believe there is one company in Europe that still does it.
In imitation of bronze d'ore, spelter was given a gilt wash. Cheaper and it lent itself to mass production. Again, not gold leaf nor ormolu. And as is true with bronze, spelter also received other surface treatments or forms of "patination". Again, an effort to imitate bronze.
I suspect your clocks, especially the Ansonia (?) figural clock, are spelter and would have been given a gilt wash, not leafed or fire gilded. Over time, the surface of these clocks develop signs of wear from dusting, handling, etc. It also darkens with exposure to the air, nicotine, smoke from lamps and fireplaces, and so on. Also, why so many pieces like that were slathered later with gold paint, often derisively call "radiator paint".
My advice is to leave them be. There's no sin in something that's old looking old with honest signs of age.
RM
Saw your posting after I posted mine. They are referring to options for the patination. Doubt the ST is bronze?
