Grease stains on glazed earthenware pot

Sara Harriet Freeman <prem_sara [at] yahoo__co__uk> writes

>Does anyone have experience removing grease stains from a glazed
>earthenware pot that has (I think) been used as a dripping pot? The
>entire body of the vessel is stained dark grey/ brown, and the
>finely cracked glaze oozes white, yellow and red grease on soaking
>in hot water and detergent. ...

first of all you might want to ask yourself if removing the stain is
necessary--after all it comes probably from the use of the pot in
its original setting, and is part of its history. If you decide to
go ahead with removing the stain, you can try creating a gel
poultice with the solvent that seem to have the most effect when you
tested, based on a Wolbers recipe. I have used an acetone gel
poultice on a plaster sculpture that had been left on the top of
kitchen cupboards for years, soaking in the oils to a gruesome
yellow hue.  I had noticed that acetone seemed to remove some of the
oil but it evaporated too quickly to be very effective, so gelling
it increased its effectiveness very much.  The treatment was quite
effective and satisfying.  If you need a more detailed recipe for
the gel poultice, you can contact me.

Myriam Lavoie
Sculpture Conservator, Quebec city


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:28
                 Distributed: Friday, December 3, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-28-003
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