Featured Any tips for antique tortoiseshell caring?

Hi all,

I just posted about this beauty yesterday and decided maybe one more post specifically about care. As I am happy with its overall condition, I am still concerned about the problems with the veneer: cracks and air bubbles trapped under make me fear that this might go worse if the temperature and humidity at wrong level. Can anyone share their experience with bigger tortoiseshell pieces like this one? I have only handled tiny patch boxes before. Many thanks!

 

I use coconut oil or olive oil to conserve have had no issues polish off after applying ....my way and it is your decision to consider or not .. regards H.

 

Thank you I have already used olive oil and guess it should be fine as long as kept from falling off the table, as it has been good for nearly 200 years!

 

As an aside I have also used appropriately coloured nail polishes to seal edges and to disguise missing shell veneer ....again your call ..H.

 

Lol the urge of using epoxy resin to fill the missing pieces has taken me several times but I fear I would mess it up. I might try out for a small bit!

 

I have snuff boxes, patch boxes, etuies. tea caddies, boulle boxes etc ...easy to do ...agree epoxy is troublesome and hard to finish.....let me know how you get on with it.....If you can do fingernails ...Easy.. build up several layers and tone in ..H.....Incidently the tortoise is in fact a turtle .... the Hawksbill sea turtle or the Green sea turtle carapace was usually used//////Artificial shell was invented around 1851 and displayed in a London exhibition around 1856 as celuloid ..( nitro celulose ) The End.

 

If you say so I think I will just order some nail polish instead haha

 

u don't want to do anything u can't undo..... so epoxy..???

I just looked at a lot of these boxes..... and a bunch of them have damage of some type.
That shell , must be really thin.

 

Epoxy can be removed with specific chemicals but not sure if that would also damage the shell. I did see an article on replacing missing shell with epoxy and the outcome looks great. So, worth a try!

my small boxes are fine in general but guess a bigger one will suffer more from that thin veneer.

 

My go-to oils are rice bran oil (nice and thin, less chance of residue) or olive oil. I have used both on tortoiseshell/hawksbill items, and they both work fine.

If the cracks bother you, I would use nailpolish, as pewter advised. It is reversible.

Keep it out of direct sunshine and away from a heat source.

Looks at it first thing in the morning, and your day will be filled with joy.

 

Thank you but sometimes it’s really hard to resist letting them shining under sunshine… for just a few minutes!

 

I understand, they deserve their moment of fame.

 

I tend to use mineral oil since it will never go rancid, but I have never had tortoise shell to repair.

 

I'm always worried that food grade oils will invite pests to have a munch !!!

 

I have never had olive oil or rice bran oil go rancid, and only hear it from people in the US. Maybe due to the cimate?

You wipe the excess oil off.
And there are pests that like tortoise/turtleshell, and don't like olive or rice bran oil.

 

Many years ago, my mama and I went and talked to someone at the V&A about what to use on tortoiseshell and they said olive oil. Gentle clean then smear on with your fingertips. I’ve never ever had it go rancid.

 

Any unattached (lifting) shell can be reattached by reactivating the glue underneath with moisture and heat, any missing bits can either be replaced by donor shell or if in a country where this isn't allowed use coloured wax. I recently asked a professional restorer in this field what it would cost to get my boulle box restored and the cost was worth more than the box.
I would restore it myself, the first thing I would do is address the lifting by gently heating a metal object to use as a iron, something that holds the heat and small enough to fit the shape of where you are trying to flatten. Keep increasing the heat until it works, far better to be too cold than burn the shell, once you feel it flatten use pressure until the heat dissipates, it should hold after that, use paper between the iron and the shell. Anything with a crack or where the glue might have dried a small drop of water in the crack might just help. For any missing bits get pure beeswax and mix in stain, this is a case of mixing in the colour bit by bit with molten wax and leaving it to harden and seeing if it's right, once you have the right mix place a big bead on the area you need to fill and use the iron to melt it in place so it stands above the area then use a blade to bring it level. Once all the shell is flat and filled clean the silver and use a beeswax polish, I can't say what polish to use as I make my own but make sure it won't affect the shell, using oil (IMO) isn't great, a wax polish will last.

 

as always thanks for your detailed reply raver! I might get some wax instead which is also good for my wooden boxes

 

It's a really good box and very rare (I had a look) very nice find, it's worth a few days of your time but don't mess it up lol
Maybe try in the least noticeable place.

 

Have to admit that the heating part seems crazy to me haha, don’t think I can do it properly, but I would try the wax filling and polishing