A lady contacted me to see whether I could repair her two treasured Tiffany-style lamps. Sadly, they had been damaged in transit when she returned to the UK from a period of time in Sweden. Originally, they had been purchased in Pakistan by this globe-trotting adventurer.

I was pleased to help restore the two attractive designs to their former glory.

The smaller of the two Tiffany lamps had a few areas of damage, particularly around the bow design, as well as a big dent to the metal vase cap on the top. The first job was to knock out the dent as best as possible, to enable it to hang straight when it was put back on its base. Next, I began removing the cracked and broken stained glass pieces. I cut replacement pieces of glass that matched the originals as closely as possible and fitted them into the spaces.

On the larger lamp, it was mostly the edge pieces that were damaged, as well as parts of some of the little white stars. While it was certainly time consuming to cut and replace so many little pieces, the biggest challenge was finding a coloured stained glass that matched the existing main part of the lamp as closely as possible. Often it is impossible to find a glass that is a perfect fit, especially when the lamp was made in the Far East or India, as was probably the case here. The original glass had a high sheen on the smooth outside and was comprised of a mix of purple, green and blue swirls. When held up to the light, the overriding colour was the purple, so I selected a purple with an iridescent coating to provide the nearest match.

Once all the repairs were complete, the owner was delighted to have her precious lamps returned so she could enjoy them again now she is settled back in the UK.