Chipped Glassware Project Repair Gallery

CHIPPED CRYSTAL WINE GLASS REPAIR

At Bruening Glass Works, we can literally repair any type of glass wine, water, martini glass etc. Here’s another example of a before and after project that we completed for a customer. You can clearly see the chip in the top of the glass as it was mailed to us.

Chipped Glass

 
Here’s a shot of the same glass that is now repaired. Additionally, we’ll clean the glass prior to shipping it back to you.

Polish Out The Chip

Tags: Baccarat Crystal, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glassware Repair, Lalique Crystal Repair, Waterford Crystal Repair

CHIPPED CRYSTAL REPAIR

We repair all types of chipped and broken crystal pieces. Here’s another example of a piece that was shipped to us in its broken state.

In many cases, our customers are unsure if something can be repaired. If you are curious, please reach out to our staff and we’d be happy to assess your repair project and provide you with a quote. People typically ship us their pieces in order to get the most accurate quote for us to repair it.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair

Chipped crystal glassware repair wine glass water glass

Chipped wine glasses ,chipped water glasses ,chipped rock glasses, champagne  glasses and chipped cordial glasses can be ground and polished to look like new.  Crystal glassware is hand made and each glass is a little different size.  Stemware from the major manufactures can be very expensive and some times the patterns have been retired so repairing is the only option.

crystal stemware repair

Waterford Crystal , Baccarat Crystal  , Lalique Crystal  , Steuben Crystal , Orrefors  Crystal , Tiffin , Fostoria , Kosta Boda, Cambridge, Stuard, Hawkes Crystal, Daum Crystal, I have repaired them all.

Tags: Chipped Crystal Repair, Waterford Crystal Repair

antique glass repair Hawkes chipped wine glass

An antique Hawkes  crystal wine glass was sent to me to be repaired.  It had a chip on the rim .  Hawkes  cut crystal is one of the best cut glass companies  of the American Brilliant Cut Glass area.

Antique cut glass Signed " Hawkes"

In 1880 Thomas G. Hawkes set up a cutting shop in Corning NY. He bought his fine handmade blanks from the Corning Glass Company. By 1886 the Hawkes Company was making glass for the White House In 1889 two of their cut glass patterns won the Grand Prize in the Paris Exposition. By the end of the nineteenth century the company was known for the best in cut glass. Even after the ware lost its general popularity, the Hawkes factory continued to produce cut glass of finest quality. Since all of their pieces were marked after 1895 (with two hawks), the new collector has easily identifiable glass in the Hawkes ware. A great deal of it has been made for special orders with monograms and even with crests. It offers a fascinating field to the collector who would like an historical collection of the patterns used by various presidents from 1886 to the present, or by well-known American families. Here is a type that has indeed been neglected.

From 1890, a period famous for cutglass, American factories produced a ware that differed appreciably from cut glass of the early 18oos. The glass itself was clearer due to finer ingredients and improved melting processes. Steam-run wheels made deeper cutting easier, although their use was not new to the period.

The thick lead glass, the handmade blanks, and the hours of skilled craftsmanship required for cutting decoration on blanks made this ware expensive. With today’s labor prices, the cost of producing tableware of this type would be prohibitive. The collectors who acquire this lovely crystal will have glass that will not be reproduced.

Although early Anglo-Irish glass was deeply cut, the patterns appearing after 1880 were more intricate and often completely covered pitchers, bowls, and candlesticks, even the rims and bases. The upper part of tumblers and necks of bottles were often the only clear areas, and even the latter were sometimes cut. The bases of most pieces had either a continuation of the pattern or a star. Like pressed glass, cut glass was made in sets for tableware. Articles such as chandeliers, candlesticks, candelabra, and vases were popular in early cut ware. By 1880 lamp shades and globes, complete lamps, and dresser sets were also made of cut glass.

“At no previous time have its uses been so many and its varieties so numerous. While the common glass is cheap beyond precedent, the finer glass, made from the best materials and highly wrought by hand, has exquisite beauties to which the world’s markets attach high values. It has the luminous brilliancy of colorless crystal, made by skillful cuttings to sparkle with white light or prismatic colors.” Thus one catalogue described its product.

Elaborate cut ware was beyond the reach of the majority, and therefore all the more desiw able. Factories making pressed glass soon foun” a substitute. Instead of selling plain blanks t the cutting shops, they pressed patterns into the blanks. Semiskilled cutters touched them up on the cutting wheel to make them almost perfect imitations of completely handmade articles. The short-cut method allowed a large supply to reach the market and as always happens when a scarce article becomes plentiful, cut glass no longer commanded so high a price. It was just a step to selling pressed blanks without the touching up on the cutter’s wheel, and then to making them of cheaper glass. “Near-cut” and “press-cut,” as the quantity productions were described, were advertised in mail-order catalogues as perfect imitations of popular cut ware.

By 1895 many factories were making this imitation cut glass. A decade later the deep cutting on hand-blown or machine-pressed blanks was rapidly going out of style. The market was so flooded with cheap imitation cut ware that by the time of World War I only a few cutting shops remained.

Until quite recently collectors of American glass have avoided cut ware because the early cut glass was considered to be Irish ware and the glass cut about 1900 not old enough to be considered an antique. For sometime, however, there has been a market for cut ware in the Southwest. Collecting either table sets (goblets, wines, sherbets, tumblers, plates, and odd pieces) or single decorative pieces, especially large fruit bowls, is becoming more and more popular everywhere. Those who start a collection now will be able to obtain a more complete set faster and more easily, and at a lower price, than in a few years.

The person who likes to collect one class of articles can choose small items such as knife rests, condiment sets, and the inevitable matchholders -hats, slippers, and boots. Cruets and cologne bottles are particularly lovely in cut glass, and powder boxes make very attractive candy containers. A punch bowl with the tray and cups is an expensive but very desirable set.

For the collector who wishes rare or cabinet pieces there are presentation, commemorative, and other special-order articles. Such a one is the large St. Louis punch-bowl set cut for the Libby Exhibit at the World’s Fair in 1904.

Repaired Rim

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Antique Glassware Repair, Antique Stemware Repair, Baccarat Stemware Repair, Broken Stem, Broken Stemware Repaired, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glassware Repair, Lalique Stemware Repair, Orrefors Stemware Repair, Stemware repair, Steuben Stemware Repair, Waterford Stemware Repair

chipped glass repair hawkes crystal

Chips in water ,wine and rock glasses can be repaired .  Chipped crystal stemware like this Hawkes  Crystal water glass was made during the Brilliant Cut Glass Era .  Hawkes Cut Glass was made in Corning NY. just across the river from Steuben Crystal.  Some of my  machines and cutting stones came from the old Hawkes factory.

Hawkes Cut Crystal water glass

Repaired Rim

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Broken Glass Glued, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration

Chipped glass repair pressed glass pitcher

Grand mothers  pressed glass pitcher had a large chip in the spout. A nice  light pink color glass but not a very valuable.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Chip Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration

replace crystal top on wine glass

Its a glass with a history and it had to be restored.  I found a glass with the same shape and transferred the top to the metal stem.  I don’t know the history but she was very happy it was back in use.

wine glass new top

Tags: Broken Glass Glued, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glassware Repair, test

Daum Glass Vase repair chip

Daum  glass has a satin finish and it makes repairing chips very difficult. This vase came in with a chip on the side of one of the leaves. I polished out the chip to a shine and then had it match the satin finish.  The satin finish is coarser than the frosted on a LaLique Crystal .

Daum Vase chip on edge

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration

Crystal Repair Antique Cut Glass Dishes by Fry

The H. C. Fry Glass company made beautiful cut glass . Henry Fry had the biggest and one of the best cutting rooms of the day . The factory was built in 1901 .   The three plates pictured here came for that cutting room in Rochester Penna. They were chipped and needed minor repairs.  Crystal repair on the best of the best is a very rewarding.

antique cut glass by H.C. Fry Glass Company

The saw tooth design is very easy to chip. I used small grinding stones that came from the Hawkes Glass Company in Corning NY to grind out the chips.

crystal repair Fry Glass with chipped saw tooth design

Then with cork , horse hair and felt wheels I polished the cystal back to a brilliant shine.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glassware Repair

crystal repair cut glass punch bowl

American brilliant cut glass punch bowl and pedistal with minor chips on the saw tooth was sent to me for repair. This bowl stands two feet tall and is a very valuable piece of crystal. It could be a piece cut crystal  made by LIBBY but I look for a signature but wasn’t able to find one. I polished the chips on the teeth and it was a work out because this is a heavy  crystal bowl. The crystal bowl and pedistal just set on one another.

crystal repair cut glass punch bowl

The bowl and pedistal are not conected. There  were chips on the pedistal.

crystal repair cut glass punch bowl and pedistal

crystal repair cut glass punch saw tooth design

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Cut Glass Repair, Antique Glass Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Cut Glass Repair

crystal repair steuben bottle stopper

Its a small little chip on the bottom of the stopper. Steuben makes the finest crystal in the world but they made colored glass many years ago. This is one of the old ” colored glass”  Steuben pieces. They are very valuable so a small chip is well worth repairing. The repair is simple just grind the stopper down . The important part is to match the same grit size so the frosting on the glass is the right . I have been a crystal repair man for thirty years and I love glass. I get crystal sent to me from around the world and I very lucky to be able to repair so many nice pieces of glass. 

Repair crystal stopper for steuben bottle

Shown above is the stopper before repair.

Repaired crystal spopper

The old Steuben glass is very valuable and very beautiful. Its one  of my favorite glasses to work on.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Bottle Repair, Chip Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glass Repair, Glassware Repair, Perfume Bottle Repair, Stuck Stopper, Waterford Crystal Repair

Crystal Repair antique cut glass epergne

The antique cut crystal piece was broken and apiece was missing. I knew I would have to make a new pedal. Antique glass comes in many colors even the clear “crystal” glass. I found in my parts department a piece of antique glass the right color and shape for this repair. I ground and polished the new pedal. Crystal repair is challenging. With the replace pedal finished I beveled the side of the bowl so I would get a good bond. Then cut in the thumb prints design. Being able to grind and polish a piece of glass that been bonded together speaks well of the strength of the adhesive. This repair job came from Pittsburgh Pa. from a very nice lady. Who I quote ” it’s not a bad drive two hours tops a little shopping lunch and were on our way home. Many customers are surprised what kind of damaged crystal can be restored. Most clients after using my services say I didn’t know that could be repaired. I threw away a lot of glass that could have been repaired. I wish I knew about you.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Crystal Arm, Broken Crystal Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glassware Repair, Glueing Glass

Chipped Waterford Crystal Vase Repair

I told her don’t through it out I can repair it . It has a very large chip in the base she said. I don’t care how big the chip is I can repair it.

Chipped Base

I can reshape the base of the vase.

Waterford Vase Chipped Foot

First  grind

Grind Chip Out

Bevel foot to shape.

Smooth Glass

Waterford Vase

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Cut Glass Repair, Antique Glass Repair, Antique Glassware Repair, Antique Lamp Repair, Chip Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Waterford Crystal Repair

antique cut glass compote repair

Very old cut crystal compote came in with a large chip on the foot or base. I cut off the base and made it thinner.  With  a diamond saw I cut off the chipped part. Then  I ground it smooth and polished it. 

antique cut glass compote

The restoration of this antique chipped crystal compote is complete.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Antique Glassware Repair, Chip Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glass Repair, Glassware Repair