Restoration & matching
Replacement castings and patina matching for sets already in the market
A crane broken in a house move, a candlestick lost in a warehouse, a set bought years ago from a maker who has closed. We cast the missing piece and match it to what the customer already owns — useful for distributors who have to answer warranty claims.
- Input
- Photographs · measurements · sample
- Match
- Form, scale and patina
- Typical use
- Warranty claims, lost pieces
- Shipping
- Air for single pieces
What we need
Photographs in daylight, and honest measurements
- Photographs of the surviving pieces from front, side and above, taken in daylight without flash — flash lies about patina.
- Height, width and base diameter of each surviving piece, and the height of the censer they belong with.
- Where possible, one small piece posted to us as a colour reference. It is the difference between a good match and an exact one.
We say in advance how close we expect to get. An antique patina that has aged twenty years in a smoky room cannot be reproduced exactly on new metal; what we can do is match the tone and let the new piece settle in, and we will tell you when that is the honest answer.
For distributors
Turning a claim into a repeat customer
A customer whose crane arrived broken is not, in their mind, having a freight problem — they are having a problem with you. A single replacement casting, shipped by air and matched to the rest of the set, usually settles it for a fraction of the value of the account. Send us the photographs the customer sent you and we will quote the replacement, not a whole new set.
Questions on this line
Before you order
Can you repair a piece rather than re-cast it?
Sometimes — a broken leg or a bent neck can be brazed and re-chased. For a piece already overseas it is almost always cheaper to cast a replacement than to ship the original back and forth.
Do you restore antiques?
We are a foundry, not a conservation studio. For an old or valuable piece, ask a conservator first; we are glad to cast a replacement element for them to fit.