Great question! I used a museum-grade cleanser provided by the curators, and a lot of elbow grease, if you can believe it! If there was debris on the item (barnacles and rusticles were common), it was gently removed first with professional dental tools and a soft toothbrush. Really simple, and it worked!
BTW, the year I was conserving was 2002, not 2004 - sorry for the mistake!
Best regards,
Jacquelyn
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Restoration Tips by: Yvonne Hammouda-Eyre
Jacquelyn, I am dying to know what they use to clean the muck off those pieces of jewelry and objects that were salvaged from the Titanic that you describe?
regards
Yvonne
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Raise the Titanic! by: Anonymous
Hi Jacquelyn
thanks Jacquelyn for providing Antique jewelry Investors with a first hand account of your own personal experiences as a marine conservator working on the RMS Titanic Preservation Project!
I agree with you, I think (and especially in the case of jewelry and highly personal objects such as that silver-plated jewelry tray, that you describe in your submission) we are more or less duty bound to recover and protect these items- Even if the Titanic had sunk on the beautiful Great Barrier Reef I would still be of the same opinion.
I wonder how much titanic jewelry and personal objects are still down there? I don't suppose it will ever be disclosed for certain reasons. What a fascinating story and what an experience the likes of which most of us will never have, to actually touch these pieces.
Thanks Jacquelyn for your submission and your opinion!
Yvonne
