Krista asks for help with cleaning Mesoamerican pottery. I know nothing of the firing processes of your pieces, and nothing of the chemical composition of your paint, and so advise you to test the method I am about to describe. For cleaning ancient Greek ceramics, both "painted" and coarse ware, we use hydrochloric acid as described by R M Cook _Greek Painted Pottery_ (Methuen 1960) 285f: "If water is not enough - and it rarely is - a more efficient solvent is dilute hydrochloric acid. Though neat hydrochloric acid does not damage well made and well preserved Greek pottery, one part of acid to twenty parts of water is normally ample. The specimen should be saturated with water before it is put into the solution of acid. If it fizzes or bubbles there is no cause for alarm. After twenty-four hours or so it may be taken out and brushed lightly. If a deposit still remains, it can be steeped longer or in a stronger solution of the acid. When finally removed the specimen should again be soaked and rinsed in water, and then put aside to dry. "Pottery that has been cleaned sometimes develops whitish crystals on its surface, caused by salts that have penetrated the clay. The cure is soaking in plain water." I have used this for terracottas with vestiges of post-firing matt paint, and have found that the acid does not affect the paint. - Anne Mackay *********** (Prof) E A Mackay Department of Classics University of Natal Durban 4001 South Africa E-Mail: [log in to unmask]