8/1/19 Report - Enameled Treasure Coast Beach Find. Storms Heating Up. Books as Treasures and Source of Metal Detecting Leads.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Old Treasure Coast Shipwreck Beach Cloisonné Find

Find and photo by Scott C.

I've been talking about enameled and cloisonné finds lately.  Here is one from a Treasure Coast shipwreck beach that was found years ago.  As you can see, it is nearly two inches across.  One possibility is that it could be the back of a pocket watch.  The hole could be for key winding. Any other ideas?

Here is a closer view.

Close-up View of the Same Item.

Photo by Scott C.

I especially like enameling and cloisonné.  Sometimes people think that if items are very old they will be primitive or crude, but that is often far from the case, as you've seen in this blog.  Below is an example of a beautiful 16th century enameled item shown in a book I once picked up in a thrift store - Jewellery, by Cyril Davenport, 1905.

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Beach hunters can't get in the leased salvage areas and use blowers to remove the sand.  As a result, we have to wait on the weather to stir things up and give us a shot at some of that shipwreck treasure.  We are now well into hurricane season and things are starting to heat up.

There are two systems to watch, but at this point it doesn't look like the first one in line will do us much good even though it will skirt the coast of Florida.   The second one, though, has time to develop.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

The nhc.noaa.com site gives the following prediction.

1. An area of disturbed weather located near the northwestern Bahamas
is forecast to move northward, producing locally heavy rainfall over
portions of Cuba, the Bahamas, and Florida during the next day or
two. Conditions could briefly become marginally conducive for
development over the weekend before the system merges with a front
and accelerates northeastward off the southeastern U.S. coast on
Sunday.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...low...10 percent.

2. A broad low pressure system located about 1000 miles west-southwest
of the Cabo Verde Islands continues to produce a large area of
disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Only gradual development of
this system is expected for the next day or so while it moves
west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph. Environmental conditions could
become more supportive by Saturday and a tropical depression is
likely to form over the weekend, several hundred miles east of the
Lesser Antilles.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...20 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...high...70 percent.

Notice the chance of the second system (red) becoming a cyclone in the next five days is up to 70% now.

It looks like the first system will only give us a bump of about one additional foot to the surf, making it about three feet.

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My wife was cleaning out some drawers and she found a few photos that were used in a treasure magazine article that I wrote many years ago.  The article was about books as treasures as well as metal detecting resources.

Here are a few I bought at thrift stores for a dollar each.  The first two I sold years ago.

Old Atlas with Tooled Leather Binding.

Vintage Florida Cruise Book

The Florida Cruise book had maps and also descriptions of ports, beaches and other coastal areas.  It provided some good leads.

Old Book on Andrew Jackson.

The Andrew Jackson book is good reading, and also had some nice old maps.

My point here is that you can find useful books cheap, even if it is difficult to make a profit buying and selling books these days.

I didn't plan on talking about books today, but the photos just popped up, so it was a good time.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/30/19 Report - Shipwreck Ring Finds. Cloisonne, Enameling and Reverse Intaglio. Weather Systems to Watch.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Copper Alloy Ring Found on Treasure Coast

Find and photo by John C.

John said, Found this ring maybe 15-20 years ago, on a Treasure Coast beach, pretty sure its shipwreck, mainly because a fellow Beach Hunter found one identical around the same time I found this one, found on a beach where we find quite a bit of 1800 material, Roberts wreck, or whippy, but we also find 1715 on that Beach as well.  Here's another small copper artifact with glass? 

Copper Alloy With Glass.

Find and photo by John C.

Thanks John.  Congratulations on the nice finds, and thanks for sharing.

The ring looks very similar to those I posted from Deagan's book yesterday.  Certainly of the same general style.  The item shown in the bottom photo looks like it could possibly be from a similar ring.

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Scott C. told me of a cloisonné piece he found years ago that looked like it could be the back of an ornate pocket watch. He said it had the winding hole where it should be and the design on it was a large fleur de lis. Most of the enameling was gone but traces remained. He said he might be able to send a photo. I'd like to see that.

Thanks Scott.

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An email from Susan E. led me to an interesting article on foiled reverse intaglio crystals.  Crystals are carved and colorful foil applied to make beautiful buttons.  Below is a link to an article describing the process.

http://www.dpaglia.com/crystal3.htm

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Talking about enameling and cloisonné, here is another piece that I found.  It is one inch, top to bottom.  Unfortunately I don't remember where or when I found it.

Enameled Pendant or Charm.

One inch high.

Edge of Same Item.

While it looks fine when viewed normally, a closer view reveals corrosion and wear.

Corrosion on Same Item.

I'm unable to provide any more information on the item at this time.  Maybe you can.

The outlines are nicely raised.

If you don't get anything else out of this, I hope you realize that you should keep finds organized and labeled with where and when you found them, along with any other important information.  After a few years, you might not remember, especially if you've found a lot.

Some things you don't think much of when you find them, but later when you know more, they might be more interesting.

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I haven't received much word about salvage finds lately.  That can either mean that not much is being found or they are on a hot spot and don't want to say anything until they are sure they got it all.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov

There are now a couple areas to watch on the National Hurricane Center map.

One is in the Caribbean and the other is coming off of Africa.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net



 

7/27/19 Report - Mystery Item Find. Enameling and Cloisonne. Assessing Possible Age of Items.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Domed Cloisonné Button.

Measures 5/8 inch diameter.

Here is a dug item.  I think it might be a cloisonné button, but not sure.  What do you think?

Below is the back of the same item.

Back of Same Button.

There is a gold gilt on the back, which has been mostly worn off.  The shank has also been lost.

On the front, you can see where some of the enamel has come off.

Send me your thoughts.

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I refined and improved my list of factors that can help determine the age of a dug item.

Here is my new revised list.

1. Stamps or markings   

        a. Country name or references.  

        b. Legal statement  

        c. Maker's mark  

        d. Marks of composition or purity 

        e. Owner's mark  

        f. Patent or registration marks   

        g. Retailer's name   

        h. Statement of allowed, proper or customary use 

        I. Year or date   

2. Shape

        a. Designs or symbols associated with a time period or culture.   

        b. Image of real objects or events of known date.
        c. Exact or similar example from a particular time period

3. Corrosion, weathering, aging    

4. Context or stratigraphy  

5. Known history of the area where found   

6. Usage wear 

7. Signs of manufacturing process.   

8. Hi-tech scientific testing ie. radiocarbon

Some factors or stronger than others.  By that I mean they provide more confidence or a specific date or narrow date range.

In the above listing stamps and markings are strong factors, for example, while corrosion is a weak factor that only provides a very general idea of the possible age.

Even though stamps and marks are generally relative strong factors, they can be fake, faint, incorrect or incorrectly interpreted.

Factors also intereact.  For example, corrosion might provide some information that an item has a little age, but at the same time removes or obscures stamps or marks.

Some cases are simple and clear.  A single mark might be considered highly definitive, while other cases involve multiple factors and are still not conclusive.

I once posted the silver bracelet shown below.

One additional thing that fits in with factor three is the aging of stones.  Turquoise for example changes color over time, but it probably takes an expert to observe that change.

Here are some of the factors.  The metal is silver, which is no help.  There is a lot of corrosion.  It was found on a beach where other old shipwreck items have been found.  There does not appear to be much use from wear.  Although there is a lot of corrosion, the close-ups of the hands do not appear to show a lot of wear.  Similar hands are similar to those from old shipwreck jewelry, but a photo of a extremely similar modern silver bracelet was found (thanks to Mitch K.).

A few factors can be observed, but inconclusively.

Context can be a strong factor, but it isn't in this case because of the dynamic beach environment and possibility of items from various age periods showing up at the same location.

The amount of corrosion shows that the item is not brand new, but it doesn't take long for items to corrode in a salt water environment. ( I always thought about doing experiments to see how long it takes silver to corrode in salt water, but never did it. )

And although the hands are similar from to those of older periods, they are also common on modern items, and more impressive is the near exact match with a specific example of a modern item.

Overall, the very good match with a modern bracelet seems to carry the most weight.  That, however could be a design that has been used for centuries, but we have no evidence of that.

I said factors can interact.  Here is one example.  Notice that I did not mention stamps or markings, which can be very strong and precise factors.  None were found on this item.  I searched for stamps or marks using a microscope, but it is possible that the corrosion obscured them if they were ever there.  You would certainly expect some type of silver mark on a modern retail piece, yet none was found.  Corrosion can, as you know, obscure stamps or marks.

The band seems too thin and round for most stamps or marks.  Any mark on the thin band would have to be very small, so I did a little additional cleaning of the ands, which to me seemed to be the most likely area for any stamps or marks.  I still found none.  After cleaning the hands and inspecting them closely under magnification, I still found on evidence of any stamps or marks.

I think the checklist can be helpful as it is, but I'll continue to try to improve it.  It might be helpful to define the strength and limits of the various factors.

There can still a good bit of subjectivity involved in reaching a conclusion.  I don't think I'll be able to remove that.  It might not even be desirable to do so.

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Did you know - Turquoise is a compound that includes metals such as aluminum, copper or iron. Water and oil can cause some of these metals to oxidize, or in other words rust. As a result of oxidation, the stones can actually change color.  Blue turquoise that contains copper can change from a light blue to a dark green.

Household chemicals and lotions can also cause turquoise to change color.

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First used on small pieces of jewelry, enamel is not paint but a thin coat of glass. Once applied to a metal and heated to high temperatures, will melt and become fused to the metal. This is similar to how ceramic glazes adhere to pottery. Pure gold, silver and copper were traditionally the only metals used in the enameling process...

Cloisonné: Enameling was practiced as early as the 5th century B.C. by the ancient Greeks, and it was the Greeks who developed the most well-known technique of enameling, cloisonné. The technique of cloisonné enamel is produced by by soldering flat metal strips to the surface of the piece, creating a groove. These are then filled with the enamel, and the piece is then fired until the enamel fuses. When cooled, the surface of the object is polished. Modern Chinese cloisonné is probably the most well known however, Chinese cloisonné ware isn’t the only collectable or desirable form of cloisonné. Russian cloisonné from the Tsarist era is also highly prized by collectors...

Distinguishing between antique and modern enamel can be a very complex process. Even experts can be led astray, and without a trained eye, evaluating these pieces is difficult. An antique Chinese vase was sold recently by Potburys, a UK auction house, for 31,000 pounds. Although it was first catalogued as 19th century, specialists later recognised the vase as a rare survivor from the reign of the emperor Qianlong...

Here is the link.

https://sarasotaantiquebuyers.com/how-to-identify-collectible-enamel/

That reminds of the cloisonné ring I once found just north of Turtle Trail.  The beauty of it struck me.  I always liked cloisonné, but  at the time I didn't think it could possibly be old.  I thought cloisonné was a more modern technique.  I didn't learn until years later that it could have possibly been from a shipwreck.

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Let me know what you think of the mystery item or my list of factors.

There is currently no significant weather or changes in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net