The work we do with jewellery involves high levels of craft, but this skill can be used in multiple ways. Much as creating new jewellery can be a wonderful undertaking, as we meet customer desires for something bespoke, repairs are also a great part of what we do.
Our jewellery repairs are in many ways as important as the making of new jewellery, because in each case the item in question is something that is very precious to its owner.
Indeed, repairs are not just for your own everyday jewellery, but also for older items such as family heirlooms, where restoring an item to its former glory can revive something with deep sentimental value.
Repair and restoration work can involve all kinds of tasks and to anyone with a keener interest, what happens next to a rather famous piece of damaged jewellery could indicate what is possible.
What Happened To The Crown At The Louvre?
The item in question is a crown that was damaged in a somewhat bungled heist at the Louvre in October last year. The fleeing robbers dropped the crown, a gift from Emperor Napoleon III to his wife Eugenie.
A recent picture released by the Louvre showed it in what the gallery described as a “badly deformed” state. The damage included:
· The crown had been crushed, something that can easily happen to a softer metal like gold
· One of the eight golden eagles had been broken off and lost
· Ten of the 1,354 diamonds had gone
However, all of the 56 emeralds remained intact and in place. The Louvre confidently stated that the crown would be fully restored “without the need for reconstruction”.
That sort of statement might be seen as putting severe pressure on the restorers, but such work goes straight to the heart of the craft that is involved in such work.
How Can Damaged Gold Jewellery Be Fixed?
In the case of gold, the very softness and malleability that made it so vulnerable to crushing are attributes that make it such a great metal for jewellers to work with. It can be carved and bent into all manner of shapes, so if bent out of shape, it can be put back again.
Gold also has the great attribute of being rust-proof. Not that the crown was soaked in water in this case, but if it had been, that would not have been an issue.
These are relevant considerations if you have gold jewellery, as we can reshape it when required and while it might have picked up dirt and grime, it will not have tarnished or corroded.
A key question is whether the metal has been scratched, which is something that can happen more easily to gold. Again, this makes it easy to engrave, but any such damage will need extra work, just as would replacing any bits broken off, like the eagle on the crown.
There are several ways in which such repair work can be carried out:
· Buffing and polishing can work on very minor scratches
· Reforming, where the metal is heated, stretched and smoothed
· Laser welding or soldering for more complex repairs
· Complete refinishing for severe damage. As the Louvre stated, this kind of repair will not be required for the damaged crown
In addition to this, extra gold may be needed if a sufficiently large piece has been broken off and lost, although it is highly unlikely it will be anything as big as the eagle on Empress Eugenie’s crown.
What Can Be Done About Lost Or Damaged Gems?
Dealing with gems is a different matter altogether, as much depends on what exactly has happened to them.
In the case of the crown, it will simply be a case of cutting small diamonds to match those that have been lost. As the hardest material of all, none of the diamonds will have been damaged and that means all ten are at large somewhere, lost but entirely intact.
Emeralds are a different case and it is a matter of considerable fortune that none of them was lost or damaged in the raid on the Louvre.
While diamonds stand at a maximum 10 on the Mohs scale, emeralds are only 7.5-8. The scale is not linear, so that is much less than three-quarters of the hardness of a diamond.
This means emeralds are more brittle and prone to being chipped and cracked, which is why they are not recommended for jewellery you would wear every day, such as a wedding ring.
However, if emeralds are damaged, it is still sometimes possible to repair them through polishing or filling cracks with resin.
You may not have any crushed crowns, but whatever your damaged jewellery, come and see us and discover what we can do to restore it.