Restored pottery

Whole vessels survive burial rarely; what comes out of the ground is sherds, and the trade reassembles them. A restored vessel is legitimate and common — a Mississippian bowl from a dozen joined sherds, a Greek lekythos with its neck filled — provided the restoration is described: how much of the visible surface is original, where the fills are, whether decoration was repainted over the fill. Stratum's Preparation card carries the restoration percentage and the consolidant and fill materials for exactly this reason.

Look under ultraviolet. Modern fills, adhesives and overpaint fluoresce differently from fired clay — plaster and epoxy glow pale, retouched slip looks dead and flat — and a UV torch in a dark room maps the restoration in a minute. Tap it: a filled area sounds dull. Feel the interior: restorers finish the outside and leave the inside rough. Weigh it against its size: plaster is lighter than fired clay, resin heavier.

A pastiche is the dishonest version — sherds from more than one vessel joined into one, or a small original fragment built into a whole with a modern body and modern painting. The tells are decoration that does not meet across joins, fabric that changes colour in a break, and a shape that is not quite any published type. A thermoluminescence test dates the fired clay it samples; on a pastiche it dates whichever sherd was drilled, so ask where the sample holes are.

Consolidate and clean only reversibly. Paraloid B-72 in acetone for friable low-fired wares, water and a soft brush for stable ones, never bleach or acid on slip. Old animal-glue and shellac restorations can be taken down with warm water or ethanol and redone, and the record should say when they were.