metal handle « Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair

Posts Tagged ‘metal handle’

Mandarin bell shaped mug, c.1770

Sunday, May 11th, 2014

In honor of Mother’s Day I am presenting a Chinese porcelain bell shaped mug from the Qianlong period (1736-1795), decorated with a domestic scene, including a mother and her children. The colorful decoration is hand painted in the Famille Rose palette and includes cobalt blue borders, floral sprays and cartouches. I particularly like the young boy balancing on a rickety red lacquered table while holding a bird above his head, which I can imagine resulted in his mother saying “son, get down from that table NOW or you will fall and break your neck.”

I am hoping the boy survived his table climbing antics unharmed, but it seems this 6-1/4″ tall mug was not so lucky. Sometime in its early life, the mug slipped from the hands of a thirsty drinker and it crashed to the floor, resulting in a broken handle and a large crack to one side. Because Chinese porcelain was expensive and highly valued in the 18th century, it was taken to a “china mender” who formed a bronze replacement handle and covered it in woven rattan for insulation. Four metal staples were applied to stabilize the crack and the mug was able to be used again.

Happy Mother’s Day and remember children, listen to your mother!

This mug with similar form and decoration still has its original loop handle intact.

Photo courtesy go Auction Atrium

Tags:Chinese, Mandarin, metal handle, porcelain, rattan, staples/rivets
Posted in mug/tankard | 6 Comments »

Doulton Lambeth Galleon jug, c.1900

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

This Teniers shape footed porcelain jug was made in Burslem, Staffordshire, England by Royal Doulton, 1892-1902. The bold transfer decoration in the Galleon pattern is printed in black with hand painted washes of mustard and aqua. This popular nautical scene appears on other forms, including vases and tobacco jars, and is clearly stamped in black on the underside DOULTON, BURSLEM, ENGLAND, GALLEON. Jug measures 7 inches high and 7 inches wide.

After this heavy jug slipped through the hands of an earlier owner, breaking its handle into four pieces, it was taken to a tinker (or china mender) who reattached the sections using five wide metal cuffs. Rather than leave the unfinished metal repairs to detract from the allure of the jug, the bands were painted in enamels to match the color and decoration of the handle. Although the color on the repairs has mellowed with age, the result still holds up and continues to be effective.

The Dalton Lambeth Galleon jug shown here has a different coloration and a perfect handle.

Photo courtesy of eBay

Tags:English, metal handle, porcelain, transferware
Posted in jug | 3 Comments »

Creamware Masonic jug, c.1800

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

This wonderfully graphic black transfer printed creamware jug, of ovoid form with loop handle, was most likely made in Liverpool, England, at the turn of the nineteenth century. It stands 7-3/4″ tall and is 8-1/4″ wide from handle to spout. Large jugs such as this were commonly found in fraternal lodges and used for dispensing alcohol after the main order of business was performed. One side is decorated with Masonic imagery and the verso is decorated with emblems and a verse from The Entered Apprentice’s Song. One night, over 100 years ago, a candidate was hoodwinked* during an especially tense initiation ritual and this jug must have fallen to the ground. Unable to repair the broken shards, a Mason brought it to a metalsmith, who fashioned a beautifully proportioned replacement spout, as well as a reinforcement rim and base. This is the first time I have come across a repair done in this fashion and I am impressed with the delicate craftsmanship. I also like how the color of the metal, which appears to contain some pewter, matches the color of the faded transfer print. *Hoodwink, which today means “to trick” or “to deceive,” was originally used in the Masonic Lodge to describe a blindfold. Hood means “cover” and wink means “closed eye.” A candidate was hoodwinked during an initiation ceremony as he was led through a room, unable to see, in order to focus on the words he was hearing. I bet many a make-do were born during such hypnotic rituals!

This jug with similar form and decorations shows what my jug would have looked like before it was repaired.

Photo courtesy of Skinner

Tags:creamware, English, metal handle, pottery
Posted in jug | 2 Comments »

Coffee/chocolate pot with multiple repairs, c.1800

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

This unusual form porcelain coffee/chocolate pot was made in China during the Jiaqing period (1796-1820) for export to North America and Europe. Standing 7″ tall, it is decorated in blue underglaze, depicting people on bridges, walls, pagodas, and flowers. Its tall form suggests it is a coffee or chocolate pot, but it might just be a tall teapot. If anyone has more information to help identify the original use of this pot, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

If you know anything about me by now, you know that I love finding antiques with multiple repairs, and this pot is a doozy. This survivor has been fitted with a replaced silver spout, a replacement handle of bronze with woven wicker wrapping, and a lid with a tin collar. That each unique repair is made from a different material suggests that the original owner must have been clumsy, as I feel the repairs were made at separate times during the 19th century. But I am glad this pot was cherished enough to warrant three individual trips to the china mender and/or tinker to extend the life and service of this little gem.

This pot with similar form is intact and shows what the original handle and spout on mine might have looked like.

Photo courtesy of LiveAuctioneers

Tags:blue & white, Chinese, metal handle, porcelain, silver
Posted in chocolate/coffee pot, teapot | 3 Comments »

“Sailor’s Farewell” Sunderland jug, c.1830

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

This small pottery “Dutch” shape jug, decorated with black transfer prints and verses of the popular Sailors Farewell, was made in Sunderland, England, in the early to middle 1800s. Standing 6″ tall, it is embellished with polychrome overglaze washes and pink lustre accents. The front and rim have floral prints and the reverse side is decorated with a black transfer print of the poem A Birth-Day Thought, written in 1809 by Charles Lamb (1775-1834):

I envy no one’s birth or fame,
Their titles, train, or dress;
Nor has my pride e’er stretched its aim
Beyond what I possess.

I ask and wish not to appear
More beauteous, rich, or gay:
Lord, make me wiser every year,
And better every day.

Over one hundred years ago when the jug was dropped, resulting in the loss of the original loop handle, it was taken to a tinker who made a metal replacement. The owner must not have liked the incongruity of the raw metal handle strapped to the delicate ceramic jug, so the handle was painted in copper tones, to help ease the offensive blight.

This jug with similar form and decoration shows what the handle on my jug would have looked like with its original handle intact.

Photo courtesy of Carter’s

Tags:English, lustre, metal handle, pottery, transferware
Posted in jug | 1 Comment »

Chinese Batavian ware teapot, c.1750

Sunday, February 9th, 2014

This globular form teapot was made in China during the Qianlong dynasty (1736-1795) for export to Europe and North America. It measures 5″ tall and 7-1/2″ wide from spout to handle and is decorated in the rouge-de-fer palette, with painted flowers in asymmetrical reserves using red, orange, and black enamels with gilt highlights on a chocolate brown ground. Batavian ware, aka Capuchin ware or Cafe au lait, was highly favored by the Dutch and named for the city of Batavia (today Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia), the center of Dutch trade in the 18th century.

An iron sleeve with sawtooth edge covers the tip of the broken spout, replaced in the 19th century by a local tinker or itinerant china mender. A simple loop iron handle, bearing the remains of white gesso, replaces the broken original. Unlike many similarly replaced metal handles I find wrapped in rattan, this one shows evidence of being an armature, upon which layers of compound were applied then painted to emulate the original form and surface. As this type of unstable compound deteriorates over the years, dealers and collectors have been known to chip away at it, exposing the bare metal. The conservator in me likes an original crusty, compound-laden handle but the collector in me prefers a more esthetically pleasing clean metal surface.

This teapot, with nearly identical form and decoration, still has its original handle and spout. But in my humble opinion, it is not nearly as interesting as mine.

Photo courtesy of LiveAuctioneers

Tags:Chinese, globular, metal handle, metal spout, porcelain
Posted in teapot | 2 Comments »

Chinese cruet with bronze handle, c.1750

Saturday, December 14th, 2013

This pear shaped, ribbed cruet jug with beak spout was made in China in the mid 1700s for export to North America and Europe. It measures 4-3/4″ high and has hand painted cobalt blue underglaze decoration of cherry trees, floral sprigs and a fence. At one point in its early life, the original loop handle, set at a 45 degree angle to the spout, broke off. Some time in the late 18th or early 19th century it was taken to a metalsmith who fashioned a sturdy bronze replacement. The gilding, visible on the terminals only and not on the handle itself, indicates that it was originally wrapped with rattan. It amuses me to see paint speckles all over the jug and handle, suggesting that one of the owners neglected to cover their treasured items when they painted their room.

These three examples of similarly formed cruet jugs each have their original handles & lids.

Photo courtesy of Christie’s

Tags:blue & white, Chinese, metal handle, porcelain
Posted in jug | 2 Comments »

Gaudy Welsh lustre jug, c.1840

Sunday, December 8th, 2013

This type of pearlware pottery “Dutch” shape jug, decorated in the Oyster pattern, was manufactured in England and Wales between 1820 and 1860, although about 80% of the production of this popular form and pattern was done in Staffordshire, England. Standing nearly 5″ tall, it is hand decorated with cobalt blue underglaze and pink lustre, green, and burnt orange overglaze enamels. Although this is not a hard to find jug, I have yet to see one with this type of seemingly simple, yet elaborate inventive repair.

Sometime in the 19th century after the jug was dropped, causing its handle to break into four pieces, a repairer decided to reinforce the broken pieces, rather than create a new metal replacement. The simple loop handle now contains three metal rivets attached through holes drilled at each broken joint, an iron cuff at the bottom, a ring at the top attached to a rivet drilled through to the inside rim, and a splint made from two thin copper wires soldered to the ends and riveted along each joint. I applaud the anonymous repairer who took a different approach with this type of unusual repair and am glad to have the outcome of his creativity in my collection.

This jug with the same form and decoration has its handle intact.

Photo courtesy of Ruby Lane

Tags:English, lustre, metal handle, pottery
Posted in jug | 2 Comments »

Badly damaged Chinese teapot, c.1780

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

What a sad little teapot this is. Once pristine, this late 18th century Chinese porcelain globular-form teapot with Mandarin decoration in the Famille Rose palette has suffered years of abuse and neglect. It stands 5-1/4″ high and is 7-1/2″ wide from the tip of the spout to the end of the handle. I am told the hand painted decoration shows the Qianlong King making a secret visit to the river bank. Not only did the original porcelain loop handle fall off after the teapot slipped from the hands of whoever was serving tea or tidying up, but the body cracked and is chipped in numerous places. Regardless, the teapot must have been highly valued, as it was brought to a china restorer who created a rattan-wrapped metal replacement handle sometime in the 1800s. The lid did not fare well either, as after it shattered into 6 pieces at a later date, it was hastily glued back together, leaving many large gaps. But at last it ended up in my collection where it proudly stands alongside hundreds of other wounded survivors living together in solidarity.

This teapot, with similar form and decoration, shows what the original handle on mine would have looked like.

Photo courtesy of William Word Fine Antiques

Tags:Chinese, globular, Mandarin, metal handle, rattan
Posted in teapot | 2 Comments »

English diptware jug, c.1800

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

I purchased this 7-3/4″ tall jug from a collector last February and it quickly became one of my favorites. The simple form, hot chocolate colored glaze, and impressive tin handle with strapping make it a visual delight. When I brought this jug to one of Don Carpentier’s workshops at Eastfield Village this summer, he marveled at it and said it was something special. So rather than try to describe it myself, here is what Don had to say:

“It is a baluster form English earthenware jug 1790-1810. It is technically know as diptware because it was decorated with slip. The design at the rim inslip-inlaid checkered rouletting. Made by impressing the design in the leather hard clay on the lathe with a roulette tool and then flooding the area with dark slip. When the slip sets up to leather hard it is put back on the lathe and trimmed down flush with the surface of the body and the design is inlaid.”

The tinsmith who crafted the metal replacement handle did a fine job securing it to the jug, by means of straps running diagonally across the ovoid form. He also added a comfortable hand support, thumb rest and small curled flourish at the bottom. Sadly, some of the jug’s best features are covered by the tin handle, such as the intricate leaf terminals and almost half of the checkered rim. But without the added handle, the original owner would not be able to use the jug for its intended purpose and I would have nothing to write about today!