clock This article was published more than 9 years ago
Question: We have an antique Swiss cylinder music box that is damaged and will no longer work. Is there someone we can contact about repairing it? moving music box
Answer: Doug Wiggins, who works out of his home in Arlington (202-681-2123; www.dougwiggins.com), specializes in restoring antique music boxes as well as fine furniture and gilding on wood, porcelain and metal. Most of the antique Swiss cylinder music boxes he's seen haven't been cleaned or repaired since they were made, around 1815 to 1900, he said, so there is a wide range of problems your piece may have. A simple cleaning, which costs about $300, might be enough. But if part of the musical mechanism is broken, the cost could go much higher.
A cylinder music box works by having tips on a comb pluck out notes as they contact teeth on a rotating cylinder. One recent cylinder music box Wiggins worked on was missing 20 tips on its comb and 10 teeth on its cylinder. “Repairing that was a lot of work,” he said. “Every part had to be replaced by hand — created, shaped, pressed in place and soldered with low-temperature solder.” The bill came to $3,000.
He asks potential customers to contact him by phone, by e-mail at
or via the contact form on his Web site to make an appointment to meet at his home shop. He’ll evaluate what your music box needs and give an estimate. If he finds only a tiny thing that needs fixing, he’ll just do it. One person who came in recently left with a working music box and didn’t pay a penny, he said. It had been cleaned fairly recently but a few parts were out of alignment. No longer.
Question: We have a vintage gold-plated table service that shines like new except for the fork tines. The salad forks look fine, but the dinner forks have rusty brown splotches that look like baked-on food. We have read that the tarnish is harmless, but it looks too unsightly to offer guests. We’ve tried fine-metal polishes and found none to work. What can we do?
Answer: Gold doesn't tarnish. What you're seeing is tarnish on the underlying silver, says Joseph Grenon, the owner of Awesome Metal Restorations in Kensington (301-897-3266; www.awesomemetals.com). "On flatware, the gold is not thick," he said. "It's almost like a gold wash. If you were to look at it under a microscope, you'd see voids between the gold." Those spaces allow salty or acidic foods to get through and interact with the metal underneath.
Grenon recommends that you try dipping a fork very quickly in Tarn-X Tarnish Remover. Rinse off the residue with water and wipe with a soft cotton cloth. Or try using 3M Tarni-Shield Cleaner, which removes tarnish and protects against further tarnishing.
If those products don’t work, you can have the forks replated in gold. Gagnon can do this for about $40 a fork.
Metro Plating and Polishing, also in Kensington (301-493-4009; www.metroplating.com), does this type of repair, too. Dennis Mace Jr., the owner, said he would need to find out how many pieces are involved to make an estimate.
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