Featured Have you accidentally damage something in your collection?

We've all done the Dumb. My most recent Oh Well was finding two loose beads from a Czech necklace I'd just finished restringing. Not the first time, either. Sewing mistakes making things are rife.

 

If it's a plain glass shelf then I'd start with some isopropyl alcohol dripped at the edge and see if it starts to disengage (may take a moment to work). Alcohol is good for loosening light glues/stickiness and it evaporates quickly. Obviously, it has to be tested when used with fabrics in case of discoloration but the felt is on bottom and already causing problems lol.

Oh nooo! I'm really sorry. I'm super paranoid about transport of paintings without glass so we always use a piece of cardboard to cover both sides. There are so many unexpected pokey bits just in the car itself. Hopefully you can touch it up without removing the varnish.

 

two Waterford vintage crystal whisky glasses , slipped out of my hands while I was packing them for a move...........

 

I know. I am usually more careful but was only transporting from one house to another, a short trip. Was also transporting a shelving unit that took up most of the van at the same time along with 2 other paintings. I laid the other 2 paintings flat on top of the shelving unit on a blanket so the third needed to be vertical. I chose the one on board since the other two were on canvas and more prone to damage. I even decided to put the painted side in so as the door handle would not abrade the surface and the frame kept the painted surface away from the seat. I was so sure that those glass shelves would not shift or I never would have transported this way.

Believe me, I am usually quite careful and have transported and shipped hundreds of paintings over the years. The two paintings I took to the Roadshow were well packed for the much longer trip. I am pretty sick about this.

 

Oooh definitely no doubt in your abilities and expertise. I'm the same. I overthink all angles and then something still goes unexpectedly and I beat myself up over what I thought I could prevent. I'm very familiar with that hated feeling. I think you'll have good success with the repair if it's a small spot. At least an easier time than a ripped canvas!

 

One of the serving spoons I purchased in my teens, silverplate Jugendstil design of no great value, a few years later it was mangled when shut in a drawer by my late Mom - she felt bad, but I told her not to worry, instead she took it to a silversmith, it still bears signs of that repair, precious to me because Mom always tried to fix things for her children...

~Cheryl

 

Never had any major mishaps, until recently a ladder fell over and hit a sterling pitcher (fortunately neither old nor collectible) bending the handle, spout, and base. It would've cost more to repair than the overall value of the piece, but I couldn't stop looking at it with regret. It, and a very few other items of no particular value were sold to a jeweler for scrap, and the proceeds contributed to granite countertops for our kitchen.

 

Many things that have lived long healthy lives have met serious injury just after meeting me unfortunately. Each assault makes me a bit more careful the next time though. Well, I’d like to think so at least.

Scratched with my shovel the only Spanish silver Reale I’ve ever found detecting.

Picked up two frames once when I thought I was grabbing one. Dropped my most valuable print. Glass shattered and I was sure it was going to have cut up the print. Thank god it didn’t but an expensive fix.


Brought home a lovely gentleman’s shaving mirror once. Set it on top of my car as I was taking it out. Swift wind smashed the whole thing on the pavement.

I broke all the finger pull-up/push down locks in a car and other various trim pieces by jamming a sedan full to the brim of things that I shouldn’t have. Have stained and damaged the upholstery on all vehicles putting dirty and jagged things in them.

There are some I recall making me feel sick to my stomach when I did them but the details aren’t coming to me right now. More than few glass, ceramic, and porcelain items got chips on them for sure. Including one of the best satsuma pieces I’ve ever seen.

 

The fact is that every time I think I’ve learnt from my mistake, I will make another on a completely different object

 

You and everyone else!

 

Then there's the attractive (I was going to write Cute but...) polar bear on my desk. East German porcelain IIRC and I thought it was a real bargain, until I got it home and saw the big chip on a foot where i'd totally missed it. I keep it in front of my face to remind myself to pay attention; I didn't even have to damage it myself since it came that way.

 

Damage came with purchase is sign of wear, damage caused by myself is purely sin

 

My sin was stupidity. Usually I check porcelain and glass for damage before buying. My pin-killing incident happened as a college sophomore. I bought a brass pin with what looked like crud on it. The crud was applied patina and the pin was 50 years older than I am. Arggh.

 

it's a NWC Talking Stick , full vintage , if not yet antique......

over 6 feet tall..... missing bird wings on top..... so unique , few recognize it.

I was moving it's location when it fell over striking my table.......... and cracking in half..........

No real need to have moved it...... just wanted to mount it on the wall.

I.m so embarrassed ..... that I wasn't even going to tell you about it...

.

 

I hope some glue can cure

 

I tend to break about one thing out of our collection per year. I can sometimes replace it, but one particularly unfortunate example was a Deco light blue perfume bottle with a very long stopper. This happened about 10 years ago, and I've never found a match, though I continue to look several times a year. The few that I've found that are similar are priced WAY above what I paid at an estate sale for the one we had. More recently, last year I knocked a prism off of a Victorian hanging lamp and, although it fell into a blanket in a padded basket, it broke. Happily, I could replace it for $15.00.

The worst example may be this year. I've been posting goodies we got at a national historic lighting show, including a wall fixture ca. 1915 with two etched shades. Those are replacements. When I was taking the first pair out to the car, one of them squeezed out of its bubble wrap, flew threw the air, and exploded into a thousand pieces on the parking lot. If it were filmed, you could have zoomed in on my horrified expression as I shouted "NOOOOOOOO" in a basso, super slo-mo voice. So I had to trudge back to the show, talk about this horrible event, return the surviving shade (because who needs one shade on a two-shaded piece?) and contract to find another sympathetic pair. Money wasted, and one half of a pair of irreplaceable shades lost.

 

It seems that 8 out of 10 incidents posted here took place during moving

 

if the item isn't ' moving ' , it ain't gonna break !!!!

 

repair.......but not cure !
if selling , I have to disclose the damage.....

 

Me, damaged a bunch of my stuff but none was done when moving all resulted from my stupid attempt of polishing, cleaning, experimenting…