Featured When galalith goes bad...

There's been mention of galalith in a few recent threads, so thought I'd post my German .830 silver snuff box by Heinrich Mohr in jewelry because it's really about the carved 'stone'. Galalith (casein formaldehyde) is less common here in the U.S. than in Europe, though, as a button collector, I've known it for decades since it was a common material for imported buttons - and a lot of those showed deterioration, because, well, they were buttons, subjected to water, heat, cleaning agents, etc. It usually holds up better in jewelry, dresser sets, etc., with the colors and effects often quite wonderful, and 'imitation' bits mistakenly identified as stone, ivory, amber, tortoise-shell, etc., and of course, also identified as bakelite, catalin or celluloid.

"Galalith" in google images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...hUKEwiIuKyq7o_vAhUPUa0KHYtMAgkQ4dUDCAc&uact=5



Bought this slightly beat-up box a while back, cost was below scrap, so couldn't resist - pictures weren't great, but the seller did suggest the carved bit was plastic, so suspected it would be galalith. As soon as I opened up the bubble wrap, a faint sour odor hit my nose (bit like spoiled milk), and confirmed the material - should have taken before pictures, it was blackish with a couple of tiny bits of red peeking through, all the crevices and cracks filled with dried silver polish. Took a while, but finally got all the old polish out, working carefully with a wooden toothpick, revealing the silver underneath, and also brushing gently in attempt to get it out of the cracks, with less success (close-ups show how bad it is). Carefully used ultrafine sandpaper to take a little of the dark surface off, bringing out a bit more of the rich coral red, but the deterioration goes deep - would have been so striking in its original condition a century or so ago, but I'm happy with it as it is, all part of its story...












~Cheryl

 

Galalith. When I read that title, I thought I was going to be learning about yet another sinful city destroyed by God's Wrath.

 

Thanks, Cheryl, I had no idea!

 

That is beautiful. Great restoration job.

 

Love the box Cheryl, and a great job, it is back to being a striking shaded red. You can't really tell it is cracked anymore, only on the closeup photos.

 

I wonder if one of those glass fibre brushes would help clean it up a bit more?
You can get them in soft to firm and work really well on some materials.
The firm ones are a bit savage but I use a very soft one for cleaning stubborn things.
Just to add I have no experience of restoring Galalith and you would need to proceed with caution on an edge first but it may produce a more even look than sandpaper.

 

I was looking at this Coro brooch- I asked the seller if the big green ‘stones’ were glass or plastic - she said she couldn’t tell. The cracks in them are somewhat similar to the Galalith shown above so I wonder if it is some sort of plastic?. AB dates it to post 1955 so doubt it’s Galalith!.

 

Also, Coro is a US company. Galalith is more of a European early plastic, originally French, and mostly used in Europe.
Pretty colour.

 

Yes, I like it but not so keen if it’s not glass. It’s on my maybe list!.
I was more thinking that the similar fissures are an indication that it is plastic rather than glass.

 

Maybe our US joolies can tell you, they may have seen it before. @Lucille.b , @evelyb30 .

 

Not familiar with those, looks like they might be worth adding to my cleaning arsenal, but might be a bit harsh - the ultrafine sandpaper, often used by model makers, is very gentle, if I recall correctly, used 4000, 6000, and 12000 grit on this...

Not sure I'd be able to spot galalith in American jewelry, suspect it was used, but it really just wasn't common here - that said, those cabochons look like they have internal fractures, which I wouldn't expect from galalith (can only describe the surface cracks as similar to a dried creek bed), those on the brooch kind of remind me of acrylic glasses damaged by putting through the dishwasher (and a thanks to my ex for once ruining an entire set of outdoor wine glasses):





And of course, ended up going down a rabbit-hole, looking into American casein (Aladdinite, Ameroid) - here's an excerpt from an interesting site:


http://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14228






~Cheryl

 

Love the first name, much nicer than casein or galalith. The second reminds me of uhmmm....

They didn't mention the Dutch galalith production, in Friesland, in cooperation with Frico, a dairy firm which still exists.
Thought you were all eagerly awaiting this valuable piece of information.

 

Hehe, thought the same on the second name (and just corrected my spelling of the first).

Of course we were, thank you...


~Cheryl

 

I’d love to know who sat there and thought hard about what they could do with spare milk.......oh yes of course, let’s make a form of plastic .
I watched an old news reel yesterday showing them making milk into clothes. Spinning it and creating fetching garments. No wonder it faded into oblivion especially as Dragonfly pointed out, that lovely smell when it starts to deteriorate.

 

The benefit of them is that they get into the crevices that sandpaper won’t. Used very carefully they have a place cleaning stubborn items!.

 

In the USA we have those "magic eraser sponge" things too. They're essentially white sponges with a very fine grit on the outside, used to buff surface stains off of tables and counters and the like. I'd think one of those would work too, since it's essentially a flexible very fine sandpaper.

I've seen galaith before, but never had it go sour on me. Most American pieces are catalin; it isn't too fond of heat either. They used to make gorgeous catalin-body radios. Not a lot of them survive, because the heat from the radio tubes was known to crack the cases.