This Chinese export porcelain helmet form jug with cobalt blue decoration was made in the style of an 18th century silver creamer.
Jug measures 4-2/4″ high and has a monochromatic floral design enameled on the front.
The replaced handle was recycled from a silver spoon by a jeweler, most likely in the early 1800’s.
The remains of early hallmarks can be seen on the inside of the handle.
This “perfect” example shown below has its original handle intact.
Photo courtesy of Eldred’s
Pair of candle holders with mercury-filled double-walled glass and cold painted with white enamel floral decoration. Mercury glass was first patented in 1849 in England, where it was often referred to as “poor man’s silver”.
I have never seen another example of mercury glass with an inventive repair. Someone did a fine repair job outfitting these broken candle holders, each measuring 6-3/4″ high, with silver painted wood bases.
The pair of bases are nicely painted, even on the bottoms.
Intact bases are shown below on this similar pair of 19th century French candlesticks.
Photo courtesy of Foret
A well worn English miniature cannon from the late 19th century shows it was much loved for many years. A Victorian boy perhaps found this under his Christmas tree and played with it until the delicate base became detached, leaving the sturdy cannon barrel abandoned.
The boy’s father, grandfather, friend, or the boy himself must have whittled the crude base out of a piece of scrap wood and attached the iron barrel using two pieces of heavy wire. A coat of brown paint completed the repair and although the cannon looks nothing at all like the unbroken original, it is still highly functional and no doubt brought joy to the original owner.
Cannon in its new incarnation with replacement wood base measures 6-1/2″ long.
The underside reveals pitted metal wire and and an unfinished wood surface.
This toy cast iron ship’s signal cannon from the early 1800’s shows what the original base on my cannon might have looked like.
Photo courtesy of Land and Sea Collection
English porcelain teapot, stamped WEDGWOOD with amphora vase mark on bottom, measures 9-1/2″ long by 4-3/4″ high.
An elegant, polished carved wood handle from the early 20th century replaces the original, which broke off long ago.
The wobbly wood handle is attached to the teapot with lightweight metal pins at the top and bottom.
This repair is purely ornamental, as the handle could never withstand the weight of even an empty teapot.
A Wedgwood teapot with the same form as mine shows what the original handle would have looked like.
Photo courtesy of Domouchelles
A porcelain tea caddy with sloped shoulders and rectangular body, made in China in the third quarter of the 1700s for export to North America and Europe.
The hand painted cobalt blue decoration with gilt highlights is in the “Jesuit” floral pattern.
A painted metal lid with embossed star & collar replaces the original floriform finial lid.
Tea caddy dates from the Qianlong period (1736-95) and measures 5″ high by 3-1/4″ wide.
This intact tea caddy with similar form and decoration still maintains its original floriform finial lid.
Photo courtesy of Eldred’s
There are many variations of this double finger oil lamp, made of pressed glass by Ripley & Company in Pittsburgh, PA. This 8″ high lamp has a lovely yellow patina in the oil reservoir from many years of use.
It was not uncommon for oil lamps to snap off at the base. As a result, I have come across many examples over the years with a variety of wood and metal replacement bases.
This wood replacement base was carved in a curious manner.
“Ripley & Co. Patd Jan 7, June 14, Aug 11, 1868” is marked on bottom of the intact base of this lamp.
Photo courtesy of eCRATER
A large Imari style porcelain mug made in China during the Kangxi period (1662-1722).
Decorated with peonies and chrysanthemums in blue, iron red and gilt underglaze enamel.
A carved wood handle, possibly reused from a damaged mid-19th century pewter teapot, replaces the original porcelain handle.
The zinc liner was added in the 1900’s, after the mug could no longer hold liquids. It now makes a perfect vase which I frequently use. Mug measures 6-1/4″ high.
This mug, with the same form and similar decoration, shows what the original porcelain handle would have looked like on my mug.
Photo courtesy of Gotheborg
English salt glaze jug in molded relief “Bacchus & Grapes” pattern dates from the early 19th century.
Jug measures 4-3/4″ high and has an original pewter lid with replaced metal handle and support band.
This jug, exactly like mine, still maintains its original figural “Pan” handle.
Photo courtesy of David Pownall Willis
This black basalt teapot with a neo-classical design of curtain swags was most likely made in Staffordshire, England in the late 1700s.
Teapot measures 9-1/2″ long and 5″ high.
The figural knob is in the form of a perched spaniel.
A well made silver spout replaces the original black basalt spout.
Another teapot, similar to mine, shows what the original simple shaped spout might have looked like on mine.
A pair of Chinese export porcelain dollhouse miniatures with blue underglaze decoration from the Kangxi period (1662-1722) with Dutch hallmarked silver mounts from the mid-1800’s.
Once the neck broke off this vase, it became a ewer, standing 2″ high with its replacement handle and spout.
A tiny Dutch hallmark in the shape of a sword can be seen on the bottom of the replaced silver neck. Between the years 1814 and 1905, sword marks were used on pieces too small to accommodate full hallmarks.
The remains of the broken porcelain vase’s neck are obscured by the silver replacement top but can still be seen looking down through the opening.
The other broken vase became a bottle, standing a mere 1″ high.
The broken top was masked by the addition of a beautifully engraved silver cap, with scalloped edge and stippled decoration.
Miniatures such as these were displayed in doll houses owned by wealthy individuals and were not intended to be played with by children.
This is what the miniatures looked like before they became damaged and their appearances altered.
Photo courtesy of China de Commande