Newbie looking for someone to repair bronze/white metal sculpture

Hockeypuck - Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - 9:14pm

Hello all. I'm sure this question has been asked, but I've been searching for a couple of hours (starting with Google) and haven't found my answer.

I am looking for someone on the East Coast (NJ/NY area) that can provide me with a repair estimate for a damaged bronze (possibly white metal) sculpture. I am in the process of filing an insurance claim with the Post Office, and need to provide some form of proof for repair or replacement cost.

We just purchased an old bronze table lamp on eBay. It is a sculpture of a cat stretching; the tail holds the lamp shade. The sculpture arrived broken: the cat separated from the base, as well as a decorative arch on the base that the cat's back legs rest on (how the shade survived I'll never know!). I realize the lamp is more a chachke than a valuable sculpture, but a broken lamp is useful to no one.

The damage is basically at end points (paws and ends of arch), and while epoxy may work, I don't think it would be strong enough to support the weight when standing.

Any thoughts as to what a repair (reunite three pieces into one and re-patina) might cost?

Thanks much!

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Hi, Tom here, I have done a

visitor - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - 7:52pm

Hi, Tom here,
I have done a lot of this type of repair. The major forms of these sculptures are usually soldered together. If forms are broken, the edge has a crystalline structure. This indicates that the sculpture is made out of zinc. The edges can be tinned with solder but it requires a stearin flux stick and a large soldering iron. these sculptures generally have a paint finish.

Best regards, Tom Podnar.

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I have no idea what you paid

Rich Waugh - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - 6:37pm

I have no idea what you paid for the lamp, so I can't venture a guess as to how practical a repair job would be. With the two breaks, the separation and the re-patination, I'd take a wild guess at about two hours shop time (minimum) for the work. That would be between a hundred and fifty and two hundred dollars, depending on the shop rate in your area.

The breaks might be repairable using epoxy, if the pieces can be drilled to have a steel rod inserted before gluing. Doing so might avoid the necessity of re-patination, something to be considered since patina work is time-consuming and tricky.

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I have a similar question

visitor - Thursday, November 5, 2009 - 11:28pm

I have a similar question about a supposedly bronze sculpture that needs a repair, but I'm wondering if it really is solid bronze. Could I email someone a picture and ask their expertise? I have no idea what the inside of a solid bronze statue would look like.

Thanks!

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Visitor, You can email me a

Rich Waugh - Friday, November 6, 2009 - 9:07pm

Visitor,

You can email me a picture of it, although it may not be possible to tell everything without seeing the piece in person. There is nothing "visual" about the inside of a bronze piece that would conclusively identify it as bronze.

There are a couple of ways to eliminate it being pot metal (which it might be), both of which you could do yourself. One way is to determine the specific gravity of the piece. Bronze (there are dozens of different alloys) will have a specific gravity in the neighborhood of 7.4 to 8.9, while pot metal (basically just zinc) has a specific gravity of 7.1 so all you have to do is see how much water the thing displaces and then weigh it and you can calculate its specific gravity.

The other method is to take a small shaving of metal from the piece and attempt to melt it with a soldering iron or gun. If you do this, the piece is probably zinc or pewter with a bronze patina, rathe rthan solid bronze. The zinc or pewter has a melting point of somewhere around 500-600F while the melting point of bronze is up around 2100F, much higher than you can achieve with a soldering iron.

Let me know what you discover or if I can help you in some way.

Rich Waugh

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White metal sculpture/trophy repair?

visitor - Friday, April 1, 2011 - 10:26am

I am trying to find out if a sculpture/trophy is repairable or not. It is said to be white metal, but I'm not sure. It's a weight lifting trophy and the barbell and the hands have broken off. If someone could look at a picture of it, which I will email, can you let me know if it's repairable or not?

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