Caring for your ancient art… Item Number: 100024 $0.00

DescriptionShould I clean my ancient artifact(s)? Over the years many of our clients have asked whether they should clean the ancient deposits off their antiquities. Naturally, an item that has been in the ground for 2000 years will usually show signs of that burial. If they don’t, you may want to ask why they don’t. Depending on the soil conditions and method of interment, you will find pieces that may show minor earthen deposits all the way up to pieces that are covered to a great extent by really tough gunk. We often see pieces with varying degrees of salt, caliches (calcium carbonate), manganese, lime and just plain dirt. But should you remove these deposits?

I suppose most purists, academicians in particular, would argue that you should preserve and appreciate items in their natural state. If you collect primarily because of the history and archaeological importance of your items, then perhaps I would agree with this line of reasoning. However, if you are collecting ancient “ART” then my thinking is to use conservation techniques that will get it looking as close to how it looked originally as is safely possible – emphasis on safely. If you go to most museums you are not likely to see pieces that are heavily encrusted or obscured by deposits. Why should you expect anything less in your personal collection?

Most of you are probably going to buy your items already cleaned and conserved, but if you happen to have a few pieces in your collection that are not already prepared, there are ways for you to do this yourself. I will discuss how to treat pottery and glass. Metals require special skills and chemicals and are bets left to the pros. Pottery is usually pretty easy to clean and is also pretty robust. We recommend you start by determining just how robust the piece is. Certain ceramics, like Greek pottery made in Canosa, Chancay pottery from Peru, and Mayan stucco pottery used pigments that can come off with water. As such, water should be avoided - unless you want to remove the decoration. In most cases, pottery can be cleaned using a solution of distilled water and Lime-away. Find a container to put your piece in and soak away for a day or two (yes, completely submerged) and most deposits should come off. After soaking, rinse thoroughly in more distilled water to get all the Lime-away off. One more caveat. If you have a piece that has been reassembled using white glue (Elmer’s here in the US), the piece will fall apart when soaked. Actually not a bad thing – a great way to learn if you have repair you didn’t know about previously…

If, after soaking, you still find stubborn deposits, you may need to use tools to actually lift these off the surface. We use a very sharp dental pick and surgeons’ scalpels to remove the gunk - but be very careful. It is incredibly easy to scratch the surface of the piece if you are not careful. You need incredible patience to sit there and scrape the surface millimeter by millimeter.

Glass can be treated in a very similar fashion, but sadly water will remove all signs of iridescence. If you like your glass with great silvery iridescence, avoid water. If you prefer your glass to be nice and translucent, water will certainly help there. Same process as pottery - use a mix of Lime-away and distilled water, then let it soak. Most deposits will come off in a day or two. If they don’t, you can always bring out the tools. But take it from a guy who put a soft Q-Tip through a piece - be careful!

Okay, maybe on second thought, if all this sounds too iffy, email us. We have folks we use that do this for a living. It’s probably worth the investment to do it right!

Happy collecting –and cleaning!

Bob Dodge