Care & Cleaning

Care & Cleaning:

To keep your pretty vanity items in good condition, be sure to keep them away from moisture. The moisture will loosen the gilding and make verdigris show up (the green nasty stuff), it can turn the foil backed stones dark, and spot or streak your mirror.

A light dusting with a stiff brush can help you clean them off, I use a little makeup brush to get in between the stones and into the filigree. You can clean this brush in between cleanings to help get rid of the little dusty particles.

If your pieces are accented with foil back or open back paste/glass jewels/rhinestones/gems, these stones are usually prong set or bezel set. If you find that one or maybe more of your jewels are missing, you can always find some replacements in older costume jewelry. Most of the time the rhinestones are rosecut which can make finding replacements very difficult.

Not only do the items look pretty on your vanity table, but they can also be put to use. I used some of my dresser items, notably a powder box, brush, perfume bottle, comb and hand mirror. I didn't have any problems with that. Most of the other items I just displayed.

Sometimes the beveled glass mirrors are streaked with black or spotted from moisture, you can usually find a replacement from other vintage or antique hand mirrors that will fit just fine. All it takes is to pull up the prongs that hold the mirrors in place.

I have had these jeweled vanity items in various stages of condition, from near mint to poor.

Near mint would mean just that, and poor means that the piece has lost most of its original gilding and the base metal is showing through, loss of numerous stones. 

Verdigris can be removed with a cotton swab moistened in white vinegar. Water cause verdigris and can ruin the piece, so don't use it to clean your items.

 I wouldn't offer these type of items unless they were in very good condition.