Hi all, I have this gorgeous piece and I'd like to clean it, but I dont want to ruin it in the process. I started to the other night but decided to hold off. It looks copper at firsr glance, but that may just be age-related patina because in some spots I see hints of brass or gold (though it's fairly lightweight). Can I use a brass cleaner, and if it's gold it won't harm it? My focus is generally clothing, so not very confident in dealing with jewelry...yet. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
I wouldn't clean it if it were mine. I would keep the patina that is present on the piece. I have a number of similar pieces in my personal collection and I wear them "as is". I usually think of these pieces as late 30s-early 40s and sort of festoon style. Your necklace is lovely!
Thank you! I thought about that, but there are areas where the 'gold' is coming through and some dirt so in this case, I think it'd be more appealinv if it were cleaned up a bit. I thought this might be Victorian. I tried it on and it's more of a choker. I also saw a similar ine that was also dated back to the Victorian period.
The second image is the back of the necklace. It almost looks like the front, but if you look closely you can see the folded metal.
