Repairing Athletic Figure Trophies
SPALDING 1928 BASEBALL TROPHY
This Spalding 1928 Baseball trophy arrived with the back ankle broken, the forward leg broken below the knee and the baseball base broken. It had been glued back together at some time in its previous life. (Never use glue for repairing metal! It won’t work.) It probably took me longer to take off the glue than solder the repairs. Though I have seen this described as white metal, I think it is lead as it soldered easily and it is very heavy. The owner decided not to remove the aging finish which I think is a yellowed lacquer on the silverplate. The repairs were painted to match the current finish.
Below are images of the Spalding Baseball Trophy before the repair.
Vintage Silver Plated Football Trophy from Georigia Tech
The football figures on this athletic trophy needed to have the screws (at the bottom of the foot) soldered back on to the bottom of the football kicker. The real challenge was soldering on the screw so that both figures would stand an equal distance and angle from the center of the trophy. (For some reason the feet for these two football kickers were not the same.) There was barely any room to fit the figures and assemble the trophy.
Always ship an trophy like this disassembled.
Vintage baseball athletic figure trophy repair and plated with lacquer
I do repair vintage trophies. The older the better. This trophy arrived with the feet broken off the base, and the bat was bent. The feet were soldered on. The bat adjusted (this is very fragile.) All parts that were lead/ pot metal were brass plated and lacquered. The solid brass tube and plague were polished and lacquered.
This is a full restoration purely for sentimental value. The "before" photos (right) show the condition upon arrival and the left photo the condition after the repair.
Polishing the brass elements along with plating and lacquer is a full restoration.
Customers may decide on repair only without the additional cost of polishing and plating. iIn that case, I paint or use metallic leaf to conceal the repair. This saves a lot of money because there is no plating, polishing and lacquer restoration work.
The older the trophy, the more likely it is repairable.
Vintage Women’s Golf Trophy
This was a rather rare vintage trophy with a female golfer. Sadly, the ankles of the lady golfer were both broken, and it was missing the golf club. I repaired the ankles first so I could figure out the height of the lady. Then I fabricated a custom golf club from brass to be the appropriate length for the golfing figure.
Both the golf club, and the ankle repairs were covered with metallic leaf so the finish was as close as possible to the old aged plating. (New plating is possible, but people rarely want to put another $600- $800 into new plating. ) Usually, I will use a combination of paint, and metallic leaf to mimic the aged plating.
ATHLETIC FIGURE FIELD EVENT TRACK TROPHY
Athletic figure trophies are very vulnerable to breaking. The trophies are very heavy, yet often balanced with all the weight on one leg.
This running figure arrived with a leg broken at the hip and a poorly done repair at the foot. In addition, there was a bad repair with glue in an attempt to attach the metal base to the pedestal.
It took hours and hours to do this repair. Inside the leg, I added some brass tubing to strengthen the repair on the inside. The repair solder is then sculpted to match the figurative details, including the fabric of the athletic trunks. As a final finish, I covered the repair with a metallic leaf and a little diluted paint to age the metal leaf.
MID-20TH-CENTURY ATHLETIC TROPHY
This mid-20th-century trophy is 21" tall. The figurines represent football, tennis, track, swimming, baseball, and basketball.
When the customer brought this trophy, four athletic figurines were broken at the ankles. The athletic figures were made from lead, making them relatively easy to repair. I think they were originally brass plated, so I painted the repair a similar color.
How did the trophy figurines get broken? It seems that the trophy was shipped as one unit. It is surprising that more of the figures weren't broken as the trophy was very heavy and the figures were fragile.
If you ever have to ship a trophy with athletic figures, disassemble it completely and protect each figure in either bubble wrap or better yet, a small box.
Repair of Athletic figure trophies
Most athletic figure trophies are very heavy and the metal is brittle. The ankles are most vulnerable to breaking. (This is shown below in multiple examples.) I can repair most athletic figure trophies as best as possible, carving the repair to look anatomically correct and aesthetically consistent with the style of the trophy. After the repair, it is painted to match as closely as possible.
Vintage Athletic football trophy repair
This vintage athletic football trophy was made from lead. The football and figure weigh a lot compared to the fragile ankle where it broke. I was able to repair the broken ankle with a brass rod inside to make it stronger.
The customer said, “Thank you so much for the wonderful repair on the trophy. It arrived yesterday and the repair was “invisible”. I am so glad and lucky that I found you online to do the repair. You were the perfect solution!!!”
Boxer trophy with ashtray
The first photo shows the photo from the customer submitted for an estimate. He did not want the ashtray section polished, so the first challenge was actually removing the trophy from the ashtray because the nut and screw had rusted together. The figure turned out to be lead which allows for a stronger repair. After sculpting the repair area, it was finished with metallic leaf.
Three pot metal trophies with athletic figures
This group of basketball trophies is an excellent example of repairing figurative pot metal trophies. The pot metal is usually very brittle and always difficult to solder. Usually, I paint or apply metallic leaf to conceal the repair.
Not all pot metal trophies can be repaired. Pot metal trophies newer than about 1960 are unlikely to be repairable. The solder will not stick to the pot metal. Trophy repairs are always a time-consuming challenge.
Do not glue your trophy. There is nothing good about glue except the advertising.
Athletic Figure Trophy
repair Step-by-step
Step one in repairing a trophy
The first step in repairing athletic figure trophies is to add some kind of support for the solder joint. In this situation, I added a small post to align the foot repair and a brass tube inside of the broken leg. (Most athletic figure trophies have hollow legs, arms, and torsos which is why they break so easily.)
Step two in repairing a trophy
In this photo, you can see that the foot alignment on the left is perfect, but the right leg doesn’t line up very well. The trophy figure’s leg might have bent when it broke. There is nothing I can do but conceal this misalignment. Figurative trophy metal does not bend without breaking. There is no way to adjust this misalignment without risking further breaks.
Step three in soldering a trophy
This photo shows the figurative trophy after soldering, and carving the solder. Carving the solder takes the most time of any step in this type of repair. Hours and hours go into carving the solder so that the repair blends into the clothing, shoes or musculature of the figure. My art background really helps with this step.
The final steps in repairing a figure
Painting takes time and an eye for color. The goal is to blend the repair into the existing trophy color - usually a combination of aged plating and yellowed lacquer. The repair is painted using a combination of metallic leaf and metallic paint until I get the right combination with several coats of paint. Look at the first photo for comparison.
