Cathy,

Maybe take a look at the site of Conservation lab McKay Lodge. They did massive conservation work on a prominent sculpture in Cincinnati and have a ton of technical info about it and its problems on their website.

http://www.mckaylodge.com/tylerdavidson

Susan Kline, M.A.

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:58:41 -0700
>From: cathyosterman <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Bronze Fountains  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Hi all,
>
>I'm hoping that someone out there has had some experience
>cleaning a bronze fountain. We have a fountain of a cowboy
>dumping water out of his boot and there is a white residue
>around the basin which I would like to clean off. I don't
>know if it is lime deposits or mineral salts but running
>distilled water through the fountain in the future isn't a
>cost-effective solution to the problem for us.
>
>Our maintenance program has included an annual cleaning with
>Orvis soap, a rinse in distilled water, and a waxing with
>Johnson Paste Wax. I believe the last time it was done was a
>year ago. I scubbed at the white residue but it didn't come
>off with the Orvis. There was some CLR with the bronze
>cleaning supplies, but I did NOT use it. I've referenced
>Patrick Kipper's book, "The Care of Bronze Sculpture" but it
>didn't exactly describe how to clean the mineral salts or
>lime off. Is it possible to clean? Should the bronze have
>some patina work done and then be maintained differently?
>Has anyone has a success that they can share with me? Any
>thoughts would be appreciated!
>
>Cathy Osterman
>Curator of Collections
>CFD Old West Museum
>Cheyenne, WY
>
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