Antique Glass Repair Project Repair Gallery

Broken Crystal Bowl Restoration brilliant cut glass

Broken in many pieces this American Brilliant Cut Glass Bowl needed a lot of work.  Some days I feel like if they gave me a chance I think I could put Humpty Dumpty back together.

broken glass bowl

Repaired crystal bowl

Old bowls hold  candy and memories the memories are more valuable .   I have spent a life time repairing memories and having a ball.

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

Broken crystal repair

crystal restoration

Broken in many pieces this crystal dragon needed a little tlc.

Depending on the type of glass , lead crystal , soda lime glass, or borasilicate glass will determine the method I use to do the restoration.

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

crystal repair broken glass restoration

One glass was broken from  the set.  I made a new glass with bumps.  The  repair would have been seen.  It was cost effective to make a replacement.

broken glass and replacement

I have a lot of ways to get the job done.   I can blow ,bend ,cast , grind , polish , stain, mill, drill ,bevel, stain, etch, carve, laminate, fuse,  drip and transplant glass.

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

art glass repair broken glass restoration

Some times the best way to repair a piece is a minor change.   A beautiful art glass vessel came in with a broken base.  The art glass compote was make from a soda lime glass so fusing the pieces together was not an option. Reheating would change the color of the glass.  The base was badly broken and pieces were missing so using an adhesive would have shown .  The artist was contacted but returning for  restoration was not an option. The  making a new base was the best solution.

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

glass repair gluing

Broken in many pieces this glass needed a lot of work.   Sent as you see it   I opened the paper it was  sent in to reveal this mess.

We carefully reassembled all the  pieces.

After repair

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

crystal repair vase broken bottom

The customer came by with the silver liner that goes with the glass restoration .  This is rare that I get to see the whole piece together.     I send the glass back and never see it complete.

Glass liner and silver

Broken for years and badly repaired the vase needed a new bottom.  I had to stop  the  two cracks on the side from going to the top.  With a process using tempature  I can control in witch direction the crack will go.

broken vase

Vase wih the broken bottom cut off

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

Verlys antique glass vase repair / restoration

Made in northern France this Verlys glass vase has a small chip on the base .  Sent to me for repair from Fla. the Miami area.

Verlys Art Deco Crystal Vase

Verlys signed crystal vase

chipped bottom

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

antique glass repair steuben crystal rooster

Dad   glued it together years ago and it came apart. I have done this repair thousands of time. Remove the old glue is the first step. Then make sure the pieces fit together.  The thinner the adhesive the better the bond.

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

crystal bowl repair broken foot

Sent to me from Atlanta Georgia this deco crystal bowl has been in the family for many years and has a lot of sentimental value . It was a very bad day when the bowl fell and the foot was broken off.

Crystal Bowl with broken foot

With a broken foot

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

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

Crystal repair Swarovski glass bear

Swarovski  crystal use a UV cured adhesive to bond there crystal animals together. In this case the adhesive failed and the head came off the bear.  I have to repair the crystal bear .  After cleaning off the old glue using a razor blade and  some cleaner I used a uv cured adhesive to restore the bear .

crystal bear

Swarovski Crystal Bear

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glass Figurine Repair, Glass Repair, Glueing Glass, Swarvorski Glass Repair

wine glass repair broken crystal stemware

The  wine glass has a metal stem but the crystal bowl was broken and needed to be replaced.  The top of the wine glass is held in by an adhesive.  I used a diamond drill bit to drill out the broken stem out of the meal stem.

wine glass repair

I found a  wine glass with the same shape bowl and cut it off its stem.  Using an adhesive I bonded the new crystal top to the metal stem.

crystal wine glass repair

I repair all kinds of stemware. Water glasses, wine glasses, rock glasses and cordials most of them just have chips. Its cost effective repair crystal the repairs are fraction of the cost of replacement.

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

crystal repair broken cut glass punch bowl

Crystal punch bowls are very easy to break.  The most common way is when  the party is over you pour out the left over punch and put hot water in the bowl to wash it out.  Old thick brilliant cut glass can not take temperature change.  The thicker the glass the more vulnerable to cracking from heat.  This beautiful cut glass punch bowl fell victim to hot water in the sink.

Broken cut glass punch bow

I can repair this bowl and it will be usable .  The cut pattern hides the repair and makes it very hard to detect .

cut glass punch bowl

After the repair the restoration is hard to find.

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