A small catastrophe happened today and I'm still not over it! As you might imagine, the lamp finials in this house are absolutely exquisite. "Lamp Jewelry" as the Missus calls them, and she's spent a lifetime collecting them from her travels all over the globe.
In this house we have an array of finials ranging from carved ivory to hand-painted porcelains, pewter, brass, marble, jade, hand-whittled wood and dazzling lead crystals.
So anyhow, this evening there was a small meeting planned for a few VIPs and Ester decided the lamp shade next to the guest of honor's chair needed to be dusted. We take them outside to do this, and as she unscrewed the turquoise finial - it broke in half in her hand!
OMG! We're all getting fired! As the butler here, normally when something gets broken we carefully wrap each piece (including the slivers) and send it off to a professional conservator. But certainly no time for that today!
So I called one of the groundskeepers Maurizio and asked him to come right away! It was a clean break in the turquoise, and he was able to fuse the two pieces together with superglue. And the lamp shade and finial were put back into place - just in time. We don't have that many guests who walk around with a magnifying glass to inspect for cracks and improper repairs, so I guess we got away with it, at least for the evening.
I have a professional obligation to report any incidents like this in my daily log - which the Missus reads from time to time. But I don't think anything more will come from this, especially if the superglue holds.
Hope this wasn't boring, but such is my world.
Thanks for dropping in,
Andrew
Good recovery Andrew ! I'm never bored reading your blogs !kek
ReplyDeleteHi KEK,
DeleteAt least it worked, for the moment. SuperGlue certainly has it's place in this world!
Andrew
Hey Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI clicked on the finials google link and my brain drew a blank.
What in the world are those used for? I have no idea why those are needed!
But what if you put the finials in the correct lamps at a precise moment in time, do they glow and revel a treasure map?
Just wondering!
-Anna
Anna, dear. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteFinials are at the top of the lamp, and screw the lampshade on so it doesn't fall off. Some are just screw caps, while others are made with exquiste design and materials.
Ours don't glow in the dark. At least as far as I know. But I'll keep my eyes open and let you know of any such happening.
Thanks for reading.
Andrew
Oh, dear. SuperGlue! Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. But the conservator will faint when he or she sees it because the first rule of conservation is never do anything that can't be reversed. We can just hope that SuperGlue solvent works on turquoise without damaging it (a lot of turquoise is treated, as I'm sure you know).
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to hear from you, Addison.
DeleteAll I know about turquoise being treated is that ours has apparently been treated quite badly!
Thank you for making me toss and turn tonight! I think we'll let the superglue repair slide. It's already faded in the memory, and if it falls apart again, there's more glue where that came from. (DeWitt to Monroe: "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point nonetheless.")
And now that you think I'm a total heathen, I did pay homage to proper repairs in a post entitled "Finding a Consevator". Did you read?
Andrew