This particular Edison Standard is one of the earliest
that I have ever had the pleasure of working on. Serial number in the
200-block, making it
"week #1" material. It is my suspicion that the early gold paint/coloring on the early stamps had gold content that oxidized (turns green),
and disintegrates, leaving a "shadow" of its former position in the shellac coated japanned black bedplate casting. Here's the condition of the original plate:
As you see, the logo is GONE.
Using some gold paint, I applied hundreds of "dots" of paint with a small fiber, thus re-creating the original "stamped" look.
Additionally, the "valley" in the shellac helped limit the bleeding of the new gold paint. After about 4 minutes, I tacked down
the fresh paint with textured paper to degloss it and matte it down.
"week #1" material. It is my suspicion that the early gold paint/coloring on the early stamps had gold content that oxidized (turns green),
and disintegrates, leaving a "shadow" of its former position in the shellac coated japanned black bedplate casting. Here's the condition of the original plate:
As you see, the logo is GONE.
Using some gold paint, I applied hundreds of "dots" of paint with a small fiber, thus re-creating the original "stamped" look.
Additionally, the "valley" in the shellac helped limit the bleeding of the new gold paint. After about 4 minutes, I tacked down
the fresh paint with textured paper to degloss it and matte it down.