Featured Would you clean this vintage abalone turtle?

Hello everyone. My mother in law is downsizing and moving so I’m going to be posting a few things in the next few weeks. I’m in Los Angeles, and my in laws bought this abalone turtle-shaped covered dish on a family vacation to Mexico in the 1970s, so it’s about 45-50 years old. It’s marked on a foot, and there are a few of these online right now. It’s more or less a foot long.

It looks as if the top is made of abalone shell onto copper (inside the lid). My guess is that the rest of it is brass. There’s a metal handle on top that may ask so be brass.

Question if this should be cleaned up at all, or left as is. The abalone looks a little dull but obviously I don’t want to ruin that at all. I would like to clean up the little handle on top, and I have a photo of that. If I should clean it up (other than a very lightly damp cloth), what to use? My mother in law lived near the ocean, so it’s been by salt air for about five years (not right by a window, and always inside).

Thank you, all.

 

I'd leave it as is.
https://www.ebth.com/items/11803969-mexican-tlaquepaque-fcs-copper-and-abalone-turtle-serving-dish
http://www.retroleaders.com/product/mexican-modern-brass-silver-copper-abalone-pearl-turtle-trey/

James.

 

damp cloth.......sounds right..

 

I'd be cautious of using a cloth. It could catch, and make matters worse. Cotton Buds may prove to be safer?

 

Gentle bruh off then a Sunshine.

 

Perhaps it’s the lighting in the ebth listing, but I remember the abalone on this turtle being really shiny like the one in the photo, and of course the metal is really cleaned up. I’m not as hot about cleaning the metal because, frankly, it’s going to tarnish and dull again.

The abalone, however, has turned dull, which I attribute to its years by the ocean (ironic, right?) I can’t really post the full size photos of the abalone because they are too large, but even the medium resolution photos shows what looks like green in between the abalone pieces, suggestion salt air corrosion to me.

I may go over the abalone with a lightly damp cotton ball, so it’s very gentle.

 

With the blue-green corrosion products, I suspect you may have a combination of copper carbonates (essentially azurite, from a reaction between the copper and the shell) and copper chlorides from the salt air. Both reactions are likely to continue even after a cleaning. In a museum setting, the solution would be to keep the object in a very dry environment.

 

Abalone and mother of pearl can be cleaned, and shine restored, using human skin and hair oil...they benefit from being rubbed in one's own hair; or rub one's fingers behind one's ears, or on one's nose, and then rub the item.
Slow process, but it is gentle. And one often does not produce enough oils to do the job quickly; but it is why pearl necklaces look better if they are worn.

 

My ma used to wear her pearl necklace round the house, next to her skin. It was astonishing how it revived it.

 

You didn't mention whether this is yours now and you are keeping it, or are you going to sell it for her?

 

Personal opinion but I agree with a local dealer of vintage Mexico who would ask a small fortune for that piece and would not have it in the case until it was restored to shiney as new once again.

 

Hi,
I would be cleaning that thing and polishing it to death. I agree with polish but i would use paste wax to shine up the abalone.
greg

 

Polishing is such a personal thing but I collect mid century Mexico on a small scale and I want all my Teran, Los Castillo, Pineda, etc. looking like new. All I can tell you is that all the serious dealers (whether private or B&M) of this period that I know (and I know most of them in the SW US from years of collecting) keep those pieces shined like a mirror and get the top prices. Meanwhile as I sit and stare at my definitely tarnished Teran coffee set I know I have a project-basically ready to pay someone to do it for me.

 

And it would go even higher IMO shined.

 

all shined up...abalone shell glows..........dull...it just sits there..!!

 

Thank you, everyone. We are definitely keeping it. It was one of my husband’s favorite things growing up. I wanted to clean it up from its current dull state, though. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions.