Eyes on the Prize(s)
We recently had the opportunity to refinish a number of sports trophies from St. Viator, a nearby Catholic school. There is some serious history in these, with the oldest dating back to the 1920s and the newest of the bunch coming from the 1950s. They are mostly for baseball and softball, but don’t think St. Viator is a one sport school! There is a swimming trophy in there too.
As you can see from the ‘before’ image above, these trophies were definitely showing some of their age. These are made from a rather eclectic mix of metals. Some plating, some bronze, some white metal with color applied to it. All of them were tarnished to an extent, and a handle had broken off one of the cups. None of these things are a unfamiliar to the craftsman of Progressive Bronze, however. Every one of them was disassembled, stripped, and polished. Repairs were done. Some things were re-plated, some things got some new color applied. Most got a good polish to reveal their metals underlying beauty.
So after all that work, we ended up with these:
They are now ready to get back in their display cabinets, with their shiny new finishes and a coat of lacquer to keep the oxygen from tarnishing them again. These should stay glorious as ever for at least a few more decades.
If you’ve got a questions or comment, feel free to leave them below. Or if you’ve got some cool old trophies that need a little love send us an email.
