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• Before & After •
Clemens Friedell Sterling Bowl

This horribly burned 13" cushion-shaped fluted bowl came screaming to me for help from being in a house fire. Created by Friedell who was once a Martelé silver chaser for Gorham, he established his own shop in Pasadena, CA, where this was made. The bowl's metal thickness is only .020" with an applied half-round edge. Since the condition of the finish was crazed, there was only so much I could accomplish to make the surface look respectable and bring back this piece to a functional state.

After numerous soakings in ammonia followed by scratch-brushing to remove the baked-on soot, I was able to tackle this repair by first pulling out the base, all major dents and leveling the base. Then it was a matter of going back and forth, burnishing and measuring to try to duplicate what the original would have looked like while maintaining the original planished surface. I never used a steel hammer while reshaping. This was especially time consuming on the fluted rim since the metal was so thin that pushing it in one direction forced a difference in the height in another area, sometimes forcing a compromise. But it was the end result that was critical. To make sure the rim wouldn't be off center I dropped a plumb bob from the ceiling to the center of the bowl's interior and measured from that line to eight points on the circumference. I then gave the bowl a soft, hand-rubbed finish.

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