posted on March 23, 2007 12:32:20 PM
I have some older English Johnson Bros china.
Some of the pieces are crazed but most of it is ok. I do notice some light brown stains on the white part of a few pieces. Is there a name for it and is there a way to removed them?
posted on March 23, 2007 12:53:05 PM
I have found that lemon juice works well, you can also mix it with baking soda to make a paste, and leave it on for a while. Could be tea stains.
posted on March 23, 2007 12:53:09 PM
Can be removed with 40% hydrogen peroxide -- used to be able to get at beauty supply store but haven't found it lately. Usually happened when dishes were heated and crazing allowed grease to seep under the glaze. Sometimes, putting discolored pieces in the sun will make the goo come to the surface. Most often, it's not worth the effort to clean, unless it's a rare pattern. But if you want to know how to use hydrogen p-ox, let me know. Interestingly, most of my white ironstone customers at shows prefer the stained look ...
posted on March 23, 2007 12:56:41 PM
it is Ironstone and the staining is on the salt and pepper shakers so don't know why they would be heated?? And don't think they are tea stains. Maybe they just belong on the ironstone. I will try the lemon jce and BP and see what happens.
posted on March 23, 2007 06:23:20 PM
Another hint I heard long ago was to dip them in (warm?) milk. Maybe soak them a bit. Never tried it, though. And. . . skim? 2%? whole? 1%??? (Once at the family cabin we had four generations eating meals for a day, and the fridge had 6 different kinds of milk!! Whole, 2%, 1%, skim, sweet acidohilus, and buttermilk. I (lucky me) was the food person. Made me NUTS.)
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posted on March 25, 2007 07:44:49 AM
This information was found on the eBay Review Site:
As a seller of pottery and porcelain pieces, I have found a couple of great ways to reduce or even eliminate the awful staining one can find on older pieces. These stains are due to seepage through teeny, sometimes invisible (to the naked eye) cracks, called crazing, in the glaze. First: DON'T put these in a chlorine bleach. This may alleviate the problem, but it is also damaging to the piece. Here's the first (easiest) way: Go to the store and get some regular oxygen bleach; the kind you use for laundry (OXY, etc.). All you need to do is mix the powder (in hot water) or just use the liquid kind, and soak your stained piece in this for several hours. Sometimes, this is not even necessary; you may see results much more quickly than that. This method is good for mildly stained pieces, i.e. coffee stains in an old cup. Here's the more involved (BUT effective!) method: Go to a beauty supply store and buy the Hydrogen peroxide bleach, 8%, the type that is used to bleach hair. Take the piece and soak it in this, completely submerged overnight. Then, take the piece out of the peroxide (don't dry it) and place it in your oven set to 200 degrees (or on the WARM setting). Let the oven rise to 200 degrees with the pottery piece in it. DO NOT preheat the oven, as the sudden temperature change could aggravate the crazing. Leave it in for an hour and then wash it. You should see that most of the staining seeped out with the peroxide when it evaporated during heating. AGAIN! DO NOT take the heated plate out and place it directly in cold water. You may transfer it to hot water for washing or allow it to cool before washing it. This has, in my experience, totally eliminated or greatly reduced this staining. Good luck!
