What is the best technique for cleaning them without harming the original plating? Am I correct to believe they are nickel plated?
Thank you very much. Best Regards, Robert Mechner ANSWER: FRANKLIN LION 25/28 Hi Robert – The early lions were cast from a high nickel alloy bronze, commonly referred to as German Silver. These lions have the appearance of being nickel plated, but are actually not plated at all, just polished. Later lions were nickel plated over bronze. If you can see the darker, tarnished bronze through the worn nickel, you likely have a nickel plated lion. The old nickel can be rather fragile and worn thin from polishings over the years. Nitric acid is a wonderful Nickel brightener, but I don’t think it is readily available. I’ll ask my plater about this next week. Otherwise, gentle polishing with your favorite metal polish is the way to go. Q-tips work well on intricate areas. The nickel used during this time is very much softer than what is commonly plated today, so you need to be careful to avoid removing too much. If gentle polishing removes the coating, exposing the bronze, then there is little
