Crystal Restoration Project Repair Gallery

Antique glass clock repair

I received part of an antique clock and it was cracked .   Repairing the glass was not an option so making a replacement part was the best option. I used a crystal glass ball prism and cut it in half.

antique glass clock base

With some  minor grinding and polishing the ball prism fit into the brass ring.  Sent from New York City the owner of the antique glass clock was thrilled to put the clock back together.

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

Antique glass candlestick repair broken crystal top

This is what happens when you let your candles burn down .    When the candle burns down to the bottom the heat from the flame cracks the glass.  Antique crystal candlesticks

broken glass candlestick

repaired crystal candle tops

To prevent this from happening to your antique crystal candlesticks you can take a drill and drill up from the bottom about two inches . That will  remove the wick from the candle and the flame will go out before it can crack the glass.

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

Waterford Crystal vase repair

Broken when washing with hot water.  Waterford crystal and all crystal vases should be wash with warm water.  This one cracked in half and we repair with an adhesive.

Waterford Vase

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

broken glass vase repair crystal restoration

I used a plate with a star cut it it to create a new foot for the antique cut glass vase.

cut glass plate

cut glass vase with old foot removed

new foot

antique cut glass with foot

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

Antique crystal vase broken foot and stained

antique glass vase with cloudy stain

This vase was in bad  shape when it came in. The antique glass vase was cloudy from years of neglect. Leaving water in the vase with flowers in it stained the glass inside walls.

crystal vase with broken foot

new foot on antique vase

Glasss vase after polishing out stains

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

Waterford Crystal repair broken letter opener

Broken were the handle meets the metal. This Waterford Crystal letter opener can be restored as good as new.

Waterford Crystal Letter Opener Repair

Crystal Restoration Waterford Letter Opener

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

Waterford Crystal repair broken glass stem

A common place for  wine glasses to break is were the stem connects to the foot.  I have repair thousands of glasses with  this type of damage.  The repaired glass is stronger than a new glass.

Waterford Glass with broken stem

Waterford Crystal glass new foot

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

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