Caring for your ceramics - breakages and repairs

A poorly repaired English tin glazed earthenware bowl, late 17th to mid 18th century.

Faults can occur during manufacture as a result of the constituents of the clay or glaze, poor fabrication techniques (e.g. how well a handle was attached) or inconsistencies in the firing process. Areas of inherent vulnerability include firing cracks, crazing or pits in the glaze. Many inherent problems in ceramics are directly related to the type of ceramic body and decoration, for example the porosity of earthenware means that it is prone to staining if it gets wet.

Restorations and repairs

Old repairs often indicate structural weakness and can disguise problems underneath. Some modern resins allow breaks to be joined almost invisibly. If the join hasn't been retouched, you should be able to spot it using a magnifying glass. Areas of loss are often filled with plaster or resin materials and then painted to disguise them. In time the paint will discolour or flake away.

In some cases, the whole object may have been coated with paint or lacquer as the last step in its restoration - at first glance this may look like the glaze but feels somewhat 'plastic'. Some porcelain restorations can be spotted by holding the object up to the light, where many repaired breaks or filled areas will appear darker than the original. A handheld ultraviolet light can help reveal restored areas.

Accidental breakage

 If you are likely to make an insurance claim, photograph the scene of the accident before anything is moved. Collect all the fragments, no matter how small. Fragments can travel quite a distance after impact, so look carefully to find all the pieces.

Place larger pieces into a tray or box, padding or loosely wrapping them with clean tissue or acid-free paper. Use self-sealing bags for small pieces. Avoid sticky labels, which can be difficult to remove. Try not to touch the broken edges as fingermarks can make rebonding difficult. Resist the urge to try to fit any pieces back together - edges are always fragile. Consult a ceramics conservator for the best possible repair.

Repairing ceramics

In theory bonding a broken ceramic back together should be straightforward, but the sheer number of poor quality repairs found - misaligned edges, adhesive that has stained porous ceramic bodies, or lumps of excess adhesive along the break line - highlight the problems that can be encountered. Sometimes the damage caused by amateur repairs can be irreversible. If you value your ceramic, leave bonding of broken pieces to a conservator.

One of the reasons for difficulties with home repairs is that common household adhesives are inappropriate. Some are too thick or discolour, whilst others bond almost instantaneously, giving one brief chance to get it right. All such products are hard to remove and will make any future repair work more difficult and time consuming. Ceramics conservators often use specialist adhesives that are not readily available to the public.

Produced by the V&A Ceramics and Glass Conservation Studio