Three Steps to Check for Damage – I Didn’t Follow My Own Advice!

Here is how to check for damage:

1. Visually inspect.  Look for wear, obvious dings and dents, haze.
2. Run your finger along the edge of the rim, the foot, all the seams.
3. Run your finger along the inside, the top and the outside edge of all rims and edges – slowly.

I missed step 3 on this gorgeous Cambridge mayonnaise bowl.  Can you see the tiny nick in the circle?  No?  Well, neither did I.

This nick is on the inside edge of the rim, not the top. It’s fairly small but my finger just felt a bit of roughness, a discontinuity in the smooth surface. The pattern has an optic so the rim varies in width; if you look at it from the top down the rim widens then narrows, then widens, then narrows, all the way around. That’s what I thought I felt at first. Sadly, I only found the nick when I got the piece home not when checking at the antique show.

Moral – always follow your own advice. Put your time where your mouth is!