Wednesday, April 22, 2009

SCULPTURES

A garden sculpture should be mounted at least 18 inches above the ground. It should be cleaned to keep off moss and algae.

Oops. Thanks to our readers who have corrected us. We described "Siam jewelry" in last week's ezine (April 15) as enameled (decorated with a vitreous substance, usually melted glass) when it is actually decorated with niello, a black metallic alloy of sulphur, copper, silver and sometimes lead. Other readers emailed that they own Siam jewelry made in the 1940s, so the jewelry is even older than we thought. But to our readers who worried about using the word "Siam" for jewelry made after the country's name changed to "Thailand" in 1949, stop worrying. The tourist jewelry made there is always called "Siam jewelry" by collectors.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Siam Jewelry" I remember this exact jewelry, bracelets etc. being for sale in numerous inexpensive stores in the 1950's and 1960's. It was very inexpensive. The "butterfly wing" jewelry was offered in souvenir shops in Florida from about the early 1960's until the late 1970's. This was in the form of pendants and earrings.

Anonymous said...

I have several colors(wine, aqua, and white)as well as the black in the Siam silver jewelry. It is marked sterling. The patterns are similar but not all alike.