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Ecnerwal[_3_]

Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote:
She priced the work at a museum conservator's shop, and ducked back out
the door upon hearing his $1500 price.

(mattathayde) wrote:
$1500????? is this a gravy bowl for an entire city? a guy in my metal
smithing class got the inside of a large vessel silver plated for 25 bucks
and it only took a few days through a local guy in VA

It's not the size of the bowl, it's that anyone advertising as or in the
business of being a museum conservator is going to work at a high price
- and/or she got the "not work I want to do, so quote an outrageous
price and hope they go elsewhere" response - pretty standard. She might
or might not have gotten a better price on similar work if the item in
question was 15th century or whatever, as the conservator might find it
interesting - or he might just be really expensive because he does
whatever he does to a high standard and by seemingly bizarre methods
that have to do with "conservation" than "replating".

The guy in your metalsmithing class got someone in the plating business
that apparently is happy to do one-off work for individuals at a
reasonable price. Perhaps you could send Lloyd the contact info for that
plater.

One of these days I hope to find a reasonable price on getting a
trombone plated, but haven't as yet - so far the only one I got was
about the price of an entire plated trombone. But I haven't really
looked too hard yet - it's not a high priority. Could be worth a drive
to Virginia...

For a mass-produced item not in current production, one serious option
is to see if there are 10 on *b*y, and if 5 of them are in good shape,
and if one of those can be bought for less than you can get the
replating done for - and then sell off the original there as well.

--
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