Calling any glass workers/chemists

[RamblinRosie]

I have a beautiful glass vase, it was a lovely cobalt blue with a silver pattern. Over the years, the silver has turned to a reddish brown.

I have tried all sorts of cleaners, silver cleaner, various mild acids, lemon and vinegar, nothing has any effect.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

There are some ideas here. Maybe you could tey putting it in a bucket of water with a denture cleaning tablet?
home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-hints-tips/cleaning-organizing/how-to-clean-sterling-silver.htm

Hmmm it’s likely to be some sort of corrosion but without knowing what the metal is it’s hard to say how to fix it. The red/brown suggests maybe iron but that wouldn’t be easy to fix, and probably wouldn’t have been a very bright silver to begin with.

If it were actual silver you could try submerging it in a bucket lined with aluminium foil, with a sprinkle of baking soda and table salt, filled with hot water. The metal would need to be close to/touching the aluminium. But silver patina tends to be black. So I’m unconvinced.

Have you tried a gentle abrasive like the pink stuff?

You might need to get the silver ring replaced? I would guess that a jeweller specialising in silver might help, or an antiques dealer?

If it’s rust then WD40 might be worth a go actually

Hmm I still reckon it might be silver actually - so I would try the aluminium baking soda method

I tried blowing up the picture to see if the glass has been placed into it cold, or if the glass and metal have been heated together at all during manufacturer, but it's too low resolution to be sure.

Do you know it's age and have you had it from new? ie how much it cost and were it came from could in itself give an indication of if it's modern pewter (a shiny mainly tin alloy with a bit of copper and antimony, but no lead) It's really easily to cast and lot's of silvery objects in gift shops etc, are this. It used to sometimes be refereed to as 'Indian silver.' (described by it's color rather than metal content) The other possibility is tin plated iron, as well as silver.

Put a magnet against it to see if there's any magnetic attachment at all. That will rule out forms of plated iron and brass.

If it's silver plate and of any value it should be stamped. Look for E.P.B.M: Silver plated Britannia metal (a mainly tin alloy with a bit of antimony and copper)
Or - E.P.N.S: Silver plated nickel silver (a mainly copper alloy with a bit of nickel and zinc)

If it has no monetary value, and is unsalvageable, and I had it, I'd look to silver leafing it as a way forward. (a steady hand and patience needed)

Wow! Lots of good ideas here, thanks to all.

Sorry about the picture quality , I’ve tried another.

The (what was) silver colour is also glass but coloured then applied to the original blue cylinder. It is somehow melted into the cylinder.

I bought it some 30 years ago in The Blue Shop in Covent Garden, cost me £120, a fortune to me then, I walked past it for a couple of weeks, and realised that I had to have it. It has a signature on the base, but nothing I can decipher.

The patina is obviously oxidation but I’m loathe to be too aggressive with it so I don’t really want to use an abrasive.

I’d love to know what is used to create the original silver colour.

So it was silvery-coloured glass, not metallic silver?

It seems like something quite unusual, I'm wondering if it was something a bit experimental that wasn't stable and it's changed colour. There are types of glass which change colour in strong sunlight (unlikely in a house in the U.K.!)

Yes, some sort of silver colour glass overlay, it was beautiful. It’s still lovely but I’d like so like to bring it back to its original beauty.