Cleaning a gold leaf mirror

pine77

Not sure how to do this.. the gold leaf is already cracked and it seems quite an old piece. Any advice would be appreciated.

Some pictures:

paddyrg

To my inexpert eye, it looks like a painted plaster moulding and not gold leaf. May not be that old, just old-styled. The mirror itself is certainly fairly modern - it's float glass and modern mirroring, without edge oxidisation or damage.

pine77

Thanks for the response.

So I can just clean it with a damp cloth?

Here is a close up of the actual mirror. It has plenty of damage and marks.. hence why I thought it was old.

Babbawah

**CAUTION**

A mate of mine once aquired very cheaply a watercolour painting in a very ornate frame such as yours.

Several years later a visitor to his house told him the watercolour was worth £200-£300ish . . . BUT . . . the frame was worth £1000's !

He had the frame valued and sold it unrestored for £3.5k !!!

paddyrg

For an expert view, go to an expert - any auction house will have one.

Age is relative, but that appears to be float glass - ie very flat. If you can reflect things off the surface without distortion (like you get with windows in old houses, ripples, unevenness) it's very likely to be, and if that's the case, the glass is 1960's or later. Similar frames are for sale at my local framing shop - I make no guarantees, but from the little I can see and know, Shakespeare probably didn't use your mirror

Paul_the_Painter

To clean the glass, first use a bit of glass cleaner. Once you've done that you'll see loads of spots that are most likely some sort of limescale. The best way to remove these is surprisingly with wire wool. Yep wire wool from your local DIY shed, a bit of glass cleaner for lubrication and scrub away. The steel is softer than the glass and therefore will not mark it.
Trust me, it'll work.
You can also get a gold coloured paste (goldfinger is one brand) in a couple of shades, one might be right but you can mix them to adjust the exact colour. Price is about £10 per tube (which well last roughly forever)