Naively Hopeful Spode Find

In my “I know nothing about china” mode, I came across some Copeland Spode plates at Goodwill. Ah…Spode. There’s a name I recognize! These lovely little bread plates, in the Wicker Lane pattern, were not cheap, but not outrageous either.

Alas my Goodwill has the practice of using packing tape to group items together for sale and these nine plates were solidly taped up. Well, the top plate was in good shape so I was naively hopeful that they all were in good shape.

Well, you probably know where this is going. I got home, carefully untaped the plates and discovered that not all were in good order. Four were fine, one was chipped and the remaining four were noticeably yellowed. You can see the difference between these two.

My first thought was that I should just take them back for exchange. Yes, just take them back! My second thought was that there may be a way to brighten and clean the plates back to their original color.

Within seconds of googling I found several treatment options. One used a two-hour hydrogen peroxide (8%) soak followed by a 180F bake for 30-60 minutes. I didn’t have 8% peroxide so I decided to try with my weaker 3%…and by golly I still got results.

Here’s what happens during the bake…gunky, sticky stuff raises to the surface. The back looked particularly dramatic.

After the plate cools, you wash it off and voila! While this plate is still not perfect yet, the treatment can be repeated. And of course if I had used the 8% peroxide it would have been better.

After all this though, I think I will be exchanging them. There is a bit of light crazing on some of them and when I checked Worthpoint for SOLD bread plates in this pattern, they went cheaply. Hmmm…maybe not enough profit in these. 😦 Though it will be hard to bring them back to the store!